is 34 up 34 or 34 down 34 as shown in fig3 the same situation prevails when the surgeon passes the guarded skin hook 100 back to the nurse fig3 in each case the guarded skin hook 100 may be passed back and forth in the o r safely and without risking a potentially dangerous nick or cut and the guard 105 may be activated with one hand without requiring the recipient such as the surgeon to take his or her eyes off of the patient or the instrumentation in the o r additionally the detent mechanism 109 provides an auditory 34 click 34 so that the recipient will know that the guard 105 has been moved into its selected alternate position as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art the teachings of the present invention are equally applicable to other medical instruments other than a skin hook including a surgical pick a dental scaler and a periodontal scaler the guarded skin hook 100 has another and very valuable feature and advantage with the conventional unguarded skin hooks used widely in the prior art there is an inherent problem in that the patient 39 s skin that is being peeled back.