2. Continued : Needle holders and tissue approximation/suturing devices

20. Four ratchet-release type needle holders:
(Crosby’s, Mathieu’s, Richter’s and Murphy’s).
21. Abbe’s needle holder: c. 1900, and a foreign
body extracting forceps.
22. Lane’s needle holder: c. 1920.
23. Modified Reverdin needle holder: c. 1920.
24. Two McEwen’s hernia needle holders.
25. A fine Stevens needle holder: 1945.
26. The three first needle holder prototypes
with carbide insert jaws: Using steel to
grasp steel needles that were harder than the
needle holder ended with deformation of the
contact surface, destroying them after a few
uses. Making the entire instrument of
hardened carbide steel is not possible and
welding carbide steel to softer steel is ineffective.
The invention of glues that allowed carbide
steel inserts to be glued to normal steel allowed
the production of effective and durable surgical
instruments. Downs Surgical, UK, 1950.
27. Michel’s clips: c. 1920, wound approximators,
the forefather of the modern tissue stapler,
designed to replace suturing of the skin. Michel’s
clips are inserted by using loaded gallery and
clamping forceps. This is an early generation of
the two Michel’s clips, applicators and removers.
28. Prototype of a gas-propelled tissue stapler:
1980, Downs Surgical, UK.
29. Prototype of the Glendinnings peritoneum
forceps: c. 1920.
30. Scissors: The Romans invented scissors by
converting the tongs of Egyptian-type forceps
into blades. Tempered steel was produced by
both the Greeks and Romans, although more
intricate surgical instruments could be cast
by combining copper and tin to make bronze
alloy. Both metals were used for such early
scissors, as iron was stronger but prone to rust,
while bronze was softer and rust-resistant.The
pivot-hinged blades in modern scissors were in
use since the 16th century. In his 1862 book,
System of Surgery , Gross describes the scissors
as, ”…nothing but two knives united by a screw
and furnished each with a ring handle.”
Around this time, Charriere, the famous Paris
instrument maker, replaced the screw with a
tenon pivot so that the blades could be
dismantled for easier cleaning and sharpening.
31. Angled surgical scissors: c. 1850.
32. Rosenberg “finger scissor”: c. 1984, a scissor
guided by the surgeon’s index finger, a
prototype by Downs Surgical, UK.