At first glance, the highly technical procedures and specialization that characterize 21stcentury surgery bear little resemblance to the craft as practiced in Renaissance France and Italy or in the 19th-century operating theaters of Paris, London, or Philadelphia. Yet continuities in Western medical traditions link contemporary surgery to its professional predecessors. To understand the way sur...

Neurosurgeons have been trying to reduce surgical invasiveness by applying minimally invasive keyhole approaches. Therefore, this paper clarifies the detailed surgical technique, its limitations, proper indications, and contraindications for a superciliary keyhole approach as a minimally invasive modification of a pterional approach. Successful superciliary keyhole surgery for unruptured aneury...

Soon after the founding of the Microsurgical Instrumentation Research Association (MICRA) in 1971, it was decided to investigate the possible use of titanium and its alloys in the production of surgical instruments suitable for use with the microscope. After an analysis of surgical instruments available at that time, it was clear to us that modifications to existing designs were required. Most ...

After its investigation of cross-contamination from arthroscopic shavers, the US Food and Drug Administration issued an alert to hospitals about medical device reprocessing methods. In response to this, a team of risk management and instrument room personnel at a university hospital undertook a project that tested the manufacturer's recommended cleaning methods for surgical instruments with the...

Many radiologists are not familiar with the names of various instruments, surgical sponges, and needles that may be seen on intraoperative and postoperative radiographs. These devices may be intentionally placed for localization or therapeutic intervention, discovered on radiographs obtained to evaluate incorrect sponge or needle counts, or incidentally encountered on postoperative radiographs....

Our recent issue on “Equipment for eye care” (number 73, September 2010) addressed the importance of equipment in the delivery of eye care and covered maintenance, repair, training, purchasing, and donations. This issue (number 76) addresses similar concerns around surgical instruments and consumables. For an eye unit to function, instruments must be carefully managed so that they remain in goo...

BACKGROUND The cleaning stage of the instrument decontamination process has come under increased scrutiny due to the increasing complexity of surgical instruments and the adverse affects of residual protein contamination on surgical instruments. Instruments used in the podiatry field have a complex surface topography and are exposed to a wide range of biological contamination. Currently, podiat...

I n 1609, while exploring the lake that now bears his name, Samuel de Champlain looked to the east and exclaimed, “Voila les vert monts.” The Green Mountain State was an inhospitable place at that time; few dared to settle there until after the end of the French and Indian War, in 1763. By 1771, the population of Vermont was 4667 people. They led a difficult existence, and the earliest surgeons...