A number of
surgical procedures, particularly
orthopaedic procedures, involve manual percussion, typically
mallet-applied. As discussed in detail herein, such procedures can be problematic as they not only require a second set of hands but are often associated with incomplete and / or uncontrolled axial movement and / or injury to the surgeon's hands. Described herein are specialized hand-held devices, as well as systems, kits, and methods associated therewith, that avoid such problems by joining or replacing the external “
mallet” with an internal “hammer” that can automate the delivery of controlled repetitive “strikes”, more particularly repeated strikes to a proximal end of a
drill, driver and / or
insertion device, so as to mete out pre-determined incremental movement to a distal end component, such as a sharpened socket-forming tip, an interference-plug type suture anchor, or a dilating device for modifying the cross-section of a tunnel formed in a bone. The present invention has particular utility in connection with
ligament,
tendon and
joint reconstruction procedures, such as shoulder,
ankle, and knee repair. The present invention is also applicable to those
surgical procedures that require the production of and access to off-axis bone sockets.