Secret Weapons of Surgery

Not all weapons are destructive, some are made for a life-saving purpose as surgical instruments. Many know the weapons used in war by names and specifications. Whereas, excluding one or two surgical instruments are secret for us although they are used commonly in hospitals.

The surgical instruments are classified on various terms

• Description of Actions they perform
• Compound Scientific names associated with surgery
• Body parts they are used on
• The bodily disruption they cause etc.

Some common surgical instruments are

Scalpel– Used for incision and cutting tissue. Include a blade and handle. Often referred by blade numbers.

Scissors– Used for cutting sutures and tissues or for dissection of heavy and fine structures. Made in straight or curved form. They are Mayo Scissors, Metzenbaum Scissors, Pott’s Scissors, Iris Scissors, etc.

Forceps– Used for grasping tissues or objects. They are toothed or non-toothed overall or at the tips. Names are Adson forceps, Bonney forceps, DeBakey forceps, etc.

Clamps– Also known as locking forceps. Used for holding tissues or objects and also for providing hemostasis. These are traumatic and non-traumatic.  Names are Crile Hemostat, Kelly Clamp, Kocher Clamp, Allis and Babcock Clamps, etc.

Needles and sutures– They are of various shapes and cutting edges depending on their vast applications. Sutures are mainly of braided and non-braided types and are between 05-11 types.

Retractors– Used to hold the incision open, tissues, or other objects. They can be handhold or mechanically retaining. Some examples are Deaver Retractor, Army-Navy Retractor, etc.

Suctions– Helps to get rid of debris and fluid from a surgical location. Some are Poole Suction Tube, Malleable Retractor, Rake Retractor, etc.

Laparoscopic instruments– Used for grasping, retracting, cutting, cauterizing, etc. It is a shafted instrument.

Some special surgical instruments’ use depends on particular types of surgeries like,

Cardiothoracic Surgery– Cardiopulmonary Bypass, Bronchoscope, VATS.

Urologic Surgery– Cystoscope, Ureteral Stent

Orthopedic Surgery– Arthroscopy, Orthopaedic Implants, Rongeur, Bone-Saw, and many more.

As much as the handling of instruments by surgeons and their subordinates is important during surgery, the construction and precision of instruments are also important for better results. The manufacturing and material used for instruments play a vital role in surgeries. As wrong material choices may result into disastrous consequences.

The basic points to keep in mind while selecting the material and manufacturing are as below.

• Material needs to be precisely malleable – As malleable helps to form any desired shape but is not too malleable as it has to hold the shape after manufacturing
• Metals need to be fairly ductile to form long and thin shapes as scissors etc.
• The surface of metals needs to be a satin finish for easy cleaning without holding any bacteria or infections.
• If possible, it should be biocompatible, to insert into the patient’s body.

The most common used materials are,

• Stainless steel or inox steel
• Platinum
• Palladium
• Titanium
• Tantalum

Along with surgeons handling the instruments, the employment of material and manufacture process makes the task easy and helps in better relief of patients.