Surgical Instruments & Knot Tying Flashcards
How are surgical instruments cleaned/sterilised?
Autoclaved at high temps within a sealed surgical pack.
What are towel clamps designed to do?
Securely attach
surgical drapes to the skin of the patient.
What is a key feature of a towel clamp and why?
Extremely sharp tips - means blood flow to the area is maintained and therefore is less traumatic to the tissue.
Why should puckering of the drapes be avoided when using towel clamps?
Instruments and organs may pass
under the drape and become contaminated.
Label the parts of a needle holder.
Answer in handbook
How many types of needle holder are there and name them.
- Mayo Hegar
- Olsen Hegar
- Gillies
What are the features of a Mayo Hegar needle holder?
- Simple and straight
- No cutting edge
- Ratchet
What are the features of an Olsen Hegar needle holder?
Very similar to Mayo Hegar but have a cutting blade just behind the tips.
What are the features of a Gillies needle holder?
- Asymmetrical
- Cutting edge behind the tips
- No ratchet
What are the types and names of scissors?
- Mayo
- Metzenbaum
What are the features of Mayo scissors and what are they used for?
- Straight
- Chunky tips and short shank
- Cutting
tough or fibrous tissue and suture material
What are the features of Metzenbaum scissors and what are they used for?
- Slim tips
- Longer shanks
- Delicate dissection and cutting of soft tissue –> never for cutting suture material
What are the 3 types of forcep?
- Dressing
- Tissue
- Artery
What are dressing forceps used for?
To hold gauze, cotton and other materials when dressing wounds. Also used to remove bits of necrotic tissue or foreign bodies from wounds prior to dressing, and also for handling suture material.
Name the dressing forceps used and its features.
Adson - Wide grip and fine serrated tip
What are tissue forceps used for?
Stabilising or holding tissue
during surgical procedures.
What are the 3 types of tissue forceps and their features?
- Adson - rat tooth tip, wide thumb grip
- Travis - at tooth tip, slimmer
thumb grip - Allis - interlocking teeth, handle with ratchet
Why should tissue forceps never be used on hollow organs?
Risk puncturing the tissue
What are artery forceps used for?
Haemostasis - control bleeding from vessels and tissue by occluding blood flow.
What are the 3 types of artery forceps and their features?
- Halstead mosquito - small with delicate serrated tips
- Rochester Pean - larger with a long wide jaw contains transverse serrations
- Spencer Wells - slightly chunkier with shorts jaws and transverse serrations
What is the ovariohysterectomy hook used for?
To help locate and exteriorise the
uterine horns during spay surgery in dogs or
cats.
How can you tell the difference between needle holders and artery forceps?
Needle holders: The jaws have a criss-cross pattern of thin serrations, and some will have a hole in one of the jaws.
Artery forceps: The jaws have transverse, relatively thick serrations.
