Measuring & Marking Instruments

Types of measuring and marking instruments

Surgical calipers

Castroviejo calipers read 0–20 mm or 0–40 mm in 1 mm steps and are set with a thumb screw; in strabismus surgery they measure muscle insertion distance from the limbus. The Castroviejo Epker caliper has a long frame, straight or angled, for oral, maxillofacial and plastic surgery. Jameson, Thorpe, Ginsberg, precision and McKissock mammaplasty calipers complete the group.

Breast and areola markers

Areola markers measure and mark the nipple-areola complex before incision, with or without ink. The range has single-size blunt markers, the Grossman four-ring marker, Freeman single and double-ended markers, the compass-like Halpern marker with a lock, and the McKissock keyhole marker with centimeter-graduated limbs.

Facial and body markers

Among the facial plastic surgery markers, the D'Assumpcao facelift marker is a ring-handled marking forceps that marks dissected facial flaps for excision in rhytidectomy; the Pitanguy marker demarcates facial and abdominal flaps; the Lockwood demarcator and navel marker are abdominoplasty marking instruments.

Nasal measuring tools

The Davis nasal projectometer reads the radix, rhinion, tip and nasolabial angle on independent X / Y axes. The Sheen cartilage grid is a millimeter grid for measuring, cutting and photographing cartilage grafts; the Tebbetts alar stabilizing jig sits under the alar cartilage; the K-wire jig guides the wire that stabilizes carved rib grafts.

Rulers, pens and goniometers

Stainless steel rulers graduated in millimeters and inches, the Joseph measuring rod, the Eckhoff mapping pen with a replaceable steel nib, and finger goniometers and the Moltgen flexometer, which measure joint range of motion.

How to choose

• What you measure. Distances in millimeters → calipers; areola diameter → areola markers; flap lines → facial and body markers; nasal projection → projectometer.
• Range and reading. Each surgical caliper page states its range and length.
• Single or set. Areola markers come singly or as sets of four.

What are measuring and marking instruments used for?

Planning incisions in mastopexy, breast reduction and augmentation, rhytidectomy and abdominoplasty; nasal analysis and graft work in rhinoplasty; strabismus and maxillofacial measurement; and joint range-of-motion measurement in hand therapy.

How BusinessMed measuring and marking instruments are made

German stainless steel with a satin, non-reflective finish unless the page names another material (for example the aluminum Grossman marker); reusable, autoclavable, 5-year warranty.

The trays, solution bowls, silicone mats and kidney dishes listed here are OR containers; see their own pages.