Medical Device Sharpening – 3 Types of Scalpel Blades Used in Surgery

The history of use of Scalpels goes back to Egyptian era. Since then the sharp and small knives, which are made form high-grade stainless steel, have helped medical professionals save countless lives. Some of these high-grade knives are not one-time use. They are made reusable by medical device sharpening companies, which specialize in surgical sharpening of medical devices without weakening the temper of medical instruments. But there are some scalpel blades which cannot be sharpen. They are disposed after use. Talking broadly, the scalpel blades can be divided into three categories, each of which will be discussed below, and you will also see which blade can be sharpened to be reused and which one should not be sent to medical device sharpening company.

Disposable scalpel blades

Disposable scalpel blades, as the name suggest, are used only once, after which the blades are discarded into a special receptacle meant to store used medical instruments. Disposing such blades cost a lot of money, so the scientists from the UK, Italy, and Denmark are working on a type of scalpel blade that can be disposed in normal thrash bin after bringing the blade in contact with a heat source after its use. This kind of blade does not require any surgical sharpening.

Retractable scalpel blades

This surgical blade is another kind of scalpel blade that is designed to provide maximum protection to doctors and healthcare professional that always remain at risk of contacting blood-born diseases by accidently getting injured by blades used for surgery. The working of this type of blade is like a craft knife, which gets released and fixed in a position for incision on the click of a button, and gets locked inside the protected shell when the button is clicked for one more time. Blades of this type can be reused after they are sharpened. There are medical device sharpening instruments that handles the sharpening of this kind of blades.

Obsidian scalpel blades

Of the three types of scalpel blades we have discussed above, this is the strongest one. This is also the most expensive of all. It costs 10 times as much as other steel blades, hence getting surgical sharpening done by a medical device sharpening company. Surgeons use this type of blades because of the precision it gives them. These blades tend to be the sharpest of all. These blades look smooth even when seen under the high magnification, unlike normal steel blade which looks like a saw blade.

If you get your medical device sharpened from unknown medical device sharpening companies then blades like obsidian blades may lose the fine edges it got, but when the same work is done by an expert surgical sharpening hands, all surgical blades retain their uniqueness and function as good as the new ones.