THUMB FORCEPS

(A) Adson, (B) Brown-Adson,

Adson, (C) Thumb w/teeth, (D) Bonnie, (E) Russian, (F) Cushing, (G) DeBakey, and (I) Dressing

Thumb forceps are commonly held between the thumb and two or three fingers of one hand,
with the top end resting on the anatomical snuff box at the base of the thumb and index
finger. Spring tension at one end holds the grasping ends apart until pressure is applied. This
allows one to quickly
ickly and easily grasp small objects or tissue to move and release it or to grasp
and hold tissue with easily variable pressure. Thumb forceps are used to hold tissue in place
when applying sutures, to gently move tissues out of the way during exploratory surgery and to
move dressings or draping without using the hands or fingers.

Thumb forceps can have smooth tips, cross

cross-hatched
hatched tips or serrated tips (often called 'mouse's
teeth'). Common arrangements of teeth are 1x2 (two teeth on one side meshing with a single
tooth on the other), 7x7 and 9x9. Serrated forceps are used on tissue; counter
counter-intuitively,
teeth will damage tissue less than a smooth surface (you can grasp with less overall pressure).
Smooth or cross-hatched
hatched forceps are used to move dressings, rremove
emove sutures and similar tasks.

Thumb forceps do not have box locks or ring handles but rather have spring handles which are
held closed by the thumb and finger pressure. Sometimes this type of forceps is referred to as
dressingforceps when the jaws are serrated and the instrument is use used
d to grasp delicate
tissueor wound dressing. A heavier version of this type of forceps is referred to as thumbtissue
forceps used for grasping heavier tissue where the teeth will provide a more secure grasp.
Examples of thumb forceps are Adson, BrownBrown-Adson,, Hudson, Dressing,Tissue Forceps with
Teeth, Russian, Cushing, and DeBakey.

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