Instrument requirements for the hand and foot surgeon are out of scale in so many respects with all other areas of orthopedic surgery. Nowhere are these particular needs more poignantly apparent than in the subtleties of design incorporated in bone reduction forceps.

Clamps for the long bones are bully and buxom creatures, ready to romp through flesh in pursuit of bone buried deep in muscle and soft tissue. But such colorful gynandroids are far too wholesome, too heavy and too long for practical use on metatarsals, metacarpals or phalanxes. As you might expect, alternatives abound in Buxton's product line. A notable example can be sited in our Phalanx Holding Clamp (56-1121). Here is a leptosome beauty with dimensions proportional to the demands. Slender jaws go gently around the most delicate bones. Serrations on the inner surfaces augment grasping ability. The shafts leading to the jaws extend far beyond the pivot joint. The effect of this feature is more flexibility at the ends of the jaws with a gentler, but adequate fixation of the fragile fragments.

A common complaint lodged against some phalanx clamps is that their jaws encounter bone surface before the first tooth on the ratchet can latch. Not so with Buxton's delicate dentiloquist contribution. Our ratchet bar is extended so the surgeon can count on utilizing this essential feature whether he is clamping phalanxes or sequestering the irregular bones of the wrist or ankle.

Hand & Footnotes, Vol. 1, No. 4