Medical Tools Used by Surgeons

Surgeons are physicians who perform surgery. To improve or restore body functions, surgeons cut open the body to repair or remove damaged or diseased areas. A typical operating room may contain a few hundred surgical tools, with the surgeon using different tools at different stages of a procedure.

Opening the Body

Surgeons use multiple instruments to open the body and access the area of disease. Curved scalpels are all-purpose scalpels used to open the skin to access a body area. Surgeons use electrocautery to divide internal muscle and tissue to access the area of interest. Specialized scalpels with triangular tips are used to open blood vessels during vascular procedures such as blood vessel bypass and placement of dialysis grafts.

Retracting Tissues

Surgeons use retractors to hold back tissues to access to the area of interest. A medical student or intern is usually responsible for holding a hand-held retractor during abdominal procedures, such as bowel or liver resections. Self-retaining retractors hold open small incisions and hold back soft tissue during biopsies and thyroid surgeries. Fixed retractors are fixed to the operating room table. Surgeons use fixed retractors to hold back tissue in large abdominal incisions, such as during liver, kidney and bowel surgeries.

Main Procedure

Once the area of interest is accessed, surgeons may use numerous tools. For example, Argonne beam lasers cut the liver and stop the bleeding, enabling a surgeon to remove part of the liver. To remove other organs, surgeons use electrocautery to remove the tissue around the organ and free the organ for removal. Surgeons use staples to divide bowel and remove tumors or diseased bowel tissue. Staples also clamp blood vessels during vessel bypass surgeries. Orthopedic surgeons use a variety of power tools (drills and saws), screws and implants to restore joint function.

Laparoscopic Tools

Surgical procedures are considered either "open" (using traditional abdominal incisions) or "closed" (using newer laparoscopic techniques). Laparoscopic procedures use multiple small incisions near the area of interest. Surgical tools (just like those used in "open" procedures) and cameras are inserted into the small incisions. With the aid of cameras, surgeons can visualize the instruments and the procedure on a monitor.

Sutures

Surgeons use suture material to hold skin, organs, tissues and blood vessels together. Removable suture material is used to close skin lacerations; the sutures are removed after the skin heals. Surgeons also use suture material that dissolves within several months after the surgery. Dissolvable material is used to close subcutaneous tissue, abdominal incisions, and some skin incisions. Permanent suture material is ideal for connecting and reconnecting muscles and blood vessels.

Caution

While many surgical tools are common to most types of procedures, different surgical specialties--such as general surgery, vascular surgery, endocrine surgery, colorectal surgery, obstetrics and gynecological surgery, and eye surgery--use tools particular to the surgical specialty.

References

• What is Laparoscopic Surgery?; University of Southern California, Department of Surgery, Center for Pancreatic and Biliary Diseases
• Compressed-Air Power Tools in Orthopaedic Surgery: Exhaust Air is a Potential Source of Contamination; Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma; H.C. Sagi, et al; November/December 2002
• Zollinger's Atlas of Surgical Operations; R.M. Zollinger; 2002

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• 20 Scary Old School Surgical Tools; Vital Signs: Taking the Pulse of Surgery and Medicine
• Renaissance Surgery; Curetoday.com; .A. Caley