gh SHARP, DURABLE, NOT MADE OF STEEL

Specialists of the Moscow Scientific and Production Center “Gran” have produced qualitatively new medical instruments – scalpels made of special ceramics, zirconium dioxide partly stabilized by yttrium. This durable biologically inert material enables to make the scalpel blade so sharp and smooth that the wound edges remain very even. Thanks to that, the incision heals up at least a couple of days earlier than the same incision made by an ordinary metal scalpel, and some postoperative complications can be avoided.

The point is that the metal scalpel cutting edge seems in appearance to be thin and even. If the cutting edge is watched through a microscope, it will turn out that even if the thickness makes about ten microns, its surface is noticeably relief, and the edge in general resembles a fine-tooth saw. Moreover, the metal surface always contains microparticles that inevitably get into the bloodstream during the operation.

As a result, the edges of the incision made by an ordinary scalpel are always slightly rough, as if they were “shaggy”. Certainly, these are microdefects, however, they may also result in postoperative complications - cheloid scars grow up, intracavitary commissural diseases appear, probability of vascular thrombosis increases and so on. They are particularly dangerous and/or undesirable in such areas as cardiosurgery and neurosurgery, vascular and embryonic surgery, cosmetology and gynaecology, let alone ophthalmology as all operations on such a delicate object as the eye require the highest-quality and least traumatic instruments.

But what about the cutting edge of new scalpels? The situation is much better. Firstly, the material is a solid crystal with practically zero porosity. This results in the new scalpel surface being very smooth, without the relief, which in the long run turns into notches of a metal scalpel. As for the thickness of the blade sharp edge (the cutting edge per se), it makes only one tenth of a micron. That is one hundred times less than that of the metal scalpel!

By the way, the material used by the authors possesses a number of advantages as compared to similar materials such as sapphire (aluminium oxide), phianite (this is also zirconium dioxide but with a larger amount of yttrium oxide and other stabilizing additive), silicon nitride and carbide. For example, the new material does not yield to phianite in solidity, but it is necessary to apply three times more effort to break it via bending. In terms of microhardness, it only yields to silicon carbide, but it is much denser and does not break. In brief, judging by aggregate properties, this material suits excellently to making scalpels – it is durable, firm, it does not break or crack (within reasonable limits, of course) and can serve for a long time.

Besides, exhausted scalpels are not necessary to throw away, they can be melted to produce new ones. It is rather easy to reclaim them – new crystals can be synthesized from the melt to produce new scalpels practically without waste products or damage to the environment.

So, hopefully, a lot of people will benefit from the innovation. Among them are patients, who will recover quicker, and medical institutions, which will save time of patients stay in the hospital and will save the effort to fight postoperative complications, and certainly the authors, who have developed and produced wonderful scalpels - sharp, durable and low-traumatic.

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