The Basics of Surgical Instruments

If you’re a medical student or a doctor then you need to know how to use basic surgical instruments because it’s not only surgeons that need to know instruments for surgery. Sometimes in a clinic you may be faced with a case where you need surgical instruments. Therefore knowledge about basic surgical instruments will keep you one step ahead.

Let’s first start with the most common instrument we use in a general surgical practice and that is dissecting forceps. This particular forceps is also called the Mitchell’s forceps. It’s a non-dissecting forceps and usually used to hold things like blood vessels. You may ask yourself how to hold dissecting forceps? You would hold it like a pen between your thumb and your index finger.

Let us move on to a different category of surgical instruments which is scissors. A scissor is usually used to cut structure. Basically you have two different types of scissors curved scissor and straight scissor. The most common is called the metzenbaum curved scissor. The metzenbaum scissor is used to cut finer tissue such as a bladder or muscle tissue. 

The best method to hold straight scissors is to put your finger on the joint of the scissors. This makes sure the scissors is more firmly held and keeps a more controlled movement. Never be out of control or never lose control of your instruments because sometimes you can cut more of what you intend to cut. So always support the scissors with your finger from the opposite hand. Another method is you can use is by placing your opposite finger at a distance which will help you regulate how much tissue you want to have cut. 

The more you learn about medical equipment in a broad sense. The more you’ll be able to make out-of-field predications and diagnosis for your patients.