A hemostat (also called a hemostatic clamp; arterial forceps; and pean, after Jules-Émile Péan) is a tool used to control bleeding during

surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...

. Similar in design to both

pliers Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, possibly developed from tongs used to handle hot metal in Bronze Age Europe. They are also useful for bending and physically compressing a wide range of materials. Generally, pliers consi ...

and

scissors Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting var ...

, it is used to clamp exposed blood vessels shut. Hemostats belong to a group of instruments that pivot (similar to scissors, and including needle holders, tissue holders, and some other clamps) where the structure of the tip determines the tool's function. A hemostat has handles that can be held in place by their locking mechanism, which usually is a series of interlocking teeth, a few on each handle, that allow the user to adjust the clamping force of the pliers. When the tips are locked together, the force between them is about 40 N (9 lbf). Often in the first phases of surgery, the incision is lined with hemostats on blood vessels that are awaiting ligation.

History

The earliest known drawing of a pivoting surgical instrument dates from 1500 B.C. and is on a tomb at Thebes,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Later

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

bronze and steel pivot-controlled instruments were found in

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

. In the ninth century A.D.,

Abulcasis Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-'Abbās al-Zahrāwī al-Ansari (;‎ c. 936–1013), popularly known as al-Zahrawi (), Latinised as Albucasis or Abulcasis (from Arabic ''Abū al-Qāsim''), was an Arab physician, surgeon and chemist from al-And ...

made illustrations of pivoting instruments for tooth extraction. The concept of clamping a bleeding vessel with an instrument before tying it off is generally attributed to

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

, in the second century A.D. This method of

hemostasis In biology, hemostasis or haemostasis is a process to prevent and stop bleeding, meaning to keep blood within a damaged blood vessel (the opposite of hemostasis is hemorrhage). It is the first stage of wound healing. Hemostasis involves three ...

was largely forgotten until it was rediscovered by a French barber-surgeon, Ambroise Paré, in the 16th century. He made the predecessor to the modern hemostat and called it the ''Bec de Corbin'' (crow's beak). With it he could clamp a bleeding vessel before securing it with a

ligature Ligature may refer to: Language * Ligature (writing), a combination of two or more letters into a single symbol (typography and calligraphy) * Ligature (grammar), a morpheme that links two words Medicine * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture us ...

. Image:Bec_de_corbin.png, Bec de Corbin Image:Pean.jpg, Pean forceps Credit for the modern hemostat has been given to several persons, the foremost of whom is Jules-Émile Péan. Later surgeons, such as

William Halsted William Stewart Halsted, M.D. (September 23, 1852 – September 7, 1922) was an American surgeon who emphasized strict aseptic technique during surgical procedures, was an early champion of newly discovered anesthetics, and introduced sever ...

, made small changes to the design.

List of hemostats

*Rankin forceps * Kelly forceps *Satinsky clamps * Kocher forceps * Crile forceps *Halsted Mosquito forceps *Mixter "right angle" forceps * Spencer Wells artery forceps (the father of all artery forceps used today)https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co170257/spencer-wells-artery-forceps-artery-forceps Science Museum Group, "Spencer Wells artery forceps"

History

List of hemostats

See also

References

Further reading