Cutting Tools
Instruments, including scissors, blades, knives, scalpels, saws, and cautery devices, are classed as cutting tools. Cutting tools are used to make incisions and sever muscle, tendon, cartilage, bone, vessels, and other connecting tissues.
Scalpels are categorised by size, whereas scissors range from heavy-duty to cut through firm tissue and even bone to small, curved scissors used in neurosurgical procedures to make tiny cuts without disturbing the surrounding tissue.
Saws are used to cut through substantial bone in amputations and procedures such as those to access the chest cavity.
Grasping Tools
Grasping tools commonly include forceps, tweezers, and clamps. Grasping instruments are used to hold items. Grasping tools may be used to grasp organic tissue such as skin, bone, and organ tissue to manipulate, hold it in place, or reveal and access areas beneath. These tools can also be used to hold inorganic materials like surgical towels, sponges, and needles.
Forceps are among the most common types of grasping tools. They typically come in a few different categories: thumb forceps, which are squeezed to open and used for applying and removing dressings and tying sutures. Reverse forceps are squeezed to close rather than open, offering unified tension and greater precision for some tasks.
Ratcheted forceps come with step-locking features designed to hold them closed at varying intervals. Non-ratcheted forceps do not have this feature and need to be consistently squeezed by the holder.
Haemostatic Instruments
Haemostatic instruments are used to control and cease bleeding, such as Sawtell and Dunhills forceps. Electrical cautery equipment is also used to cauterise and cease bleeding and close off wounds. Sutures are another method of achieving haemostasis and are usually used with a needle and needle holder.
Retractors
Retractors can be used to hold a wound or incision open for better visibility of the workspace or to pull tissue or organs back to reveal areas below. Retractors will generally be categorised as either self-retaining or non-self-retaining, where self-retaining retractors can hold themselves open at varying internals. The latter must be constantly held open by the holder.
Tissue Unifying Tools
Tools and instruments such as needles, needle holders, clips, sutures, surgical tape, staplers, and cauterisers are all classed as tissue unifying. These can be used to bind tissues together, such as skin, bone, cartilage, muscle, tendon, and other types of membranes.
We cover surgical tools for human applications in this article, but there are lots of similarities between human-based surgical instruments and their uses and common veterinary surgical instruments.
Surgeons use a wide variety of surgical instruments in operating rooms that contribute to various surgical procedures. Each surgical tool has a specific structure and features. For a surgeon, it is necessary to thoroughly understand the anatomy of surgical instruments.
It is every surgeon’s prior responsibility to perform successful surgeries. However, they can improve their practice by learning more about the tool’s features and its use in surgical procedures. A better understanding of surgical instruments and their functions can significantly improve surgery.
In this article, you will get to learn about the anatomy of basic surgical instruments used in surgical procedures.
There are some commonly used surgical instruments that surgeons use in many procedures. Every instrument has a basic design with some specific features. The basic structural elements of surgical instruments are finger rings, ratchets, shanks, joints, and box locks. The tip of the instrument has variable categories on the basis of serrations, teeth, blades, curvatures, length, and so on.
The function that an instrument will eventually serve determines its overall design. Also, a single surgical tool is available with different variations, like straight or curved blades. Therefore, the tool selection purely depends on the operator’s requirements and preferences.
Let’s discuss the features and functions of some commonly used tools in surgeries.
Surgical scissors are multipurpose instruments with a standard structure. They are basic surgical instruments mainly used for cutting tissues and other surgical materials.
The scissors' design consists of finger ring handles connected to a shank via a box lock. The tip of the instrument can be straight or curved. Moreover, they are available with blunt and delicate tips. Different surgeries require different scissors depending upon the purpose of use. Some scissors have a ratchet lock system that provides ease for the surgeon. Also, the scissors are categorized based on their variability in designs and sizes.
Surgical scissors are useful for cutting body tissues outside or inside the body. They are also ideal for cutting in the operating room and suture material. Surgeons use sharp blade scissors for the cutting of hard tissues. For delicate tissue cutting, they prefer to use delicate scissors. The use of straight, curved, or angled scissors also depends on the area and type of surgery.
Surgical retractors are the primary tools that surgeons use in most surgeries. That’s why it is very important to know and understand how they are useful in surgeries.
The basic structure of the retractor consists of finger ring handles or straight handles with different tips. The tip of the tool can be blunt or sharp. Also, it has a ratchet lock system to lock the instrument in place for satisfactory operations.
Some retractors with a similar shape have a single sharp spike on end. They can also be double-ended instruments with one long and another short end. Besides, there are some malleable retractors that surgeons can modify according to their needs.
Retractors’ main function is to hold the tissues open during surgeries. These tools help to keep the incision open in such a way that the superficial tissues can be retracted. Surgeons commonly use them in hernia repair operations, breast biopsies, and neck surgeries.
Its self-retaining structure with the ratchet keeps the wound open while maintaining self-retraction. It helps surgeons’ hands to be free during surgeries, so they can comfortably perform other operational tasks.
Surgical needles are small implements used during and after surgery to sew stitches into various types of tissue.
The main features of surgical needles include edge type, needle shape, ductility, point sharpness, and strength. The needle should be strong enough to pass through the tissue without changing shape or breaking after repeated passes. The sharpness of the needle allows the surgeon to maintain control of the needle while using as little force as necessary to penetrate the tissue.
The surgical needle’s role is to precisely place the suture material at the wound’s edge to oppose the tissue edges and carry the material through the tissue. Surgeons choose a surgical needle based on the procedure, the tissue being sutured, and the suture material size.
Surgical forceps are the general surgery tools that surgeons encounter in many surgeries. it is an ideal shape instrument
Generally, the forceps consist of serrated jaws with smooth or toothed ends. It has finger ring handles along with the ratchet mechanism. The tips of the forceps can be straight or curved, with smooth, blunt, semi-blunt, sharp teethed ends.
Generally, forceps are useful for holding and manipulating tissues during surgeries. Some toothed tip forceps help to firmly grasp the hard tissues. However, the jawed forceps with smooth ends are ideal for holding delicate structures with minimal tissue loss. These are also used by surgeons to grasp vessels before ligation.
Every surgical instrument has a unique design for a specific surgical application. Therefore, the proper use of tools can improve the efficiency of surgeries. For this reason, surgeons should carefully understand the anatomy of different surgical instruments. Understanding this teaches practitioners to select the correct tool with exact variations.
You can contact GerMedUSA to obtain the tools for an exact match. We offer a wide range of surgical instruments in various configurations. You can also contact us to have your desired surgical instruments customized. All our instruments are made of high-quality German stainless steel, ideal for long-term use.
There are a variety of scissors available with blunt or delicate blades that can be straight or curved. Surgeons typically use sharp-bladed scissors for hard tissue cutting and delicate scissors for soft tissue cutting.
During surgery, surgeons use retractors to hold and retract tissues. The most common self-retaining retractors hold back tissues from the surgical site so that the operator can perform the procedures comfortably.
The common tools for cutting purposes are surgical scissors, blades, and scalpels. Surgical scalpels are specifically for the incision of internal tissues and organs.