Surgical Instruments

The Instrument That Controls Bleeding in Every Surgical Specialty Hemostatic forceps are the tools surgeons use to clamp blood vessels and control bleeding. Without them, every procedure involving tissue dissection would be impractical. Yet there is far more variety within this instrument category than most procurement lists reflect. Using Rochester forceps when Mosquito clamps are […]

Exposure Is Everything in Surgery A procedure can stall completely because of inadequate exposure. Retractors hold tissue aside to give the surgical team a clear working field. They are not exciting instruments, but choosing the wrong retractor for a case increases case time, strains the assist holding the retractor, and can cause tissue trauma from

Instrument Sets Aren’t One-Size-Fits-All Most hospitals start the procurement conversation asking for a “basic surgical instrument set.” The challenge is that no universal standard exists for what “basic” means. A general surgery set built for laparotomy looks almost nothing like a basic orthopedic set or an ENT tray. And an instrument set that serves a

Two Scissors That Look Similar and Do Very Different Jobs Metzenbaum and Mayo scissors are both standard issue in almost every general surgical tray. They are both ring-handled, both available curved and straight, and both made from surgical-grade stainless steel. To an untrained eye they look interchangeable. They are not. Using Mayo scissors for tissue

Tissue Forceps That Grasp Without Crushing—Except When They Should Babcock and Allis forceps are both tissue-grasping instruments with ring handles and ratchet locking. Both are used to hold structures during surgery. But the way they grip tissue is fundamentally different, and using the wrong one damages delicate organs unnecessarily. Fizza Surgical manufactures both patterns for

The Laryngoscope That Changed Intubation Practice The Macintosh laryngoscope blade, introduced by Sir Robert Macintosh in 1943, remains the most widely used laryngoscope blade design in anaesthesia and emergency medicine worldwide. More than 80 years after its introduction, the curved blade with its distinct spatula-tip geometry continues to be the first choice for orotracheal intubation