Cottle Cartilage Crusher | Serrated or Smooth Bed

What a Cottle cartilage crusher is

This is the crusher most rhinoplasty trays carry, and the reason is that it does the common job well rather than the hard job adequately. Septal cartilage, harvested and sitting on a trolley, needs to be made flat and pliable and then put back. The Cottle block does that in one tap.

The choice between the two beds is a real one and it is worth getting right. A SMOOTH bed crushes: the fibers break, the graft loses its spring and comes out an even thickness, and it will bend whichever way you push it. A SERRATED bed crushes and scores at the same time, which leaves a line of weakness and makes the graft bend along that line. If you want a graft that curls in a chosen direction, you want the serrations; if you want a flat sheet, you want the smooth face.

So it is sold as a serrated cartilage crusher or as a smooth cartilage crusher. Both are our own attribute, which is why both are in the product name now. The old name said Serrated Jaws, and that described one of the two options we actually sell. It also said jaws, and a block crusher has a bed.

It is listed as a Cottle cartilage crusher, a Cottle bone crusher, a cartilage crusher and a nasal cartilage crusher. LowFruits measures “cartilage crusher” at 50 searches a month and “cottle cartilage crusher” at 40, which makes this the only product in this family whose own eponym carries a measured number. A US catalog house prices the pattern at 178.99 dollars; ours is 45.

What we do not publish is the bed dimension. Rival listings quote a 15 to 16 mm working anvil for the pattern. Ours is one bed in two surface finishes and we do not publish its size, because our record does not carry it.

Key design features

Serrated or smooth, and what each one leaves behind

Smooth gives you a flat, pliable sheet with no preferred direction. Serrated gives you a sheet with a grain: it bends along the score lines and resists bending across them. Surgeons who do a lot of dorsal onlay work tend to want one of each.

A block, not a pair of pliers

The graft sits in the bed and the lid comes down flat. The force arrives across the whole piece at the same moment, which is what produces an even result rather than a crushed stripe with untouched cartilage either side of it.

Lighter than the Jost, deliberately

Septal cartilage does not need the mass the Jost carries, and a lighter block is quicker to handle on a trolley and easier to hold square while it is tapped. Rib cartilage is where that stops being true, and that is what the Jost is for.

A hinged lid and nothing else

No screw, no clip, no ratchet, no interchangeable plates. One bed, one lid, one hinge. Nothing on it can be lost or fitted the wrong way round in the middle of a case.

Which bed to order

One decision, and it is about what the graft has to do afterwards.

Where it is used

Graft preparation, on a trolley rather than in the patient.

What it holds back, and what it must not do

Crushing cannot be undone, which makes the right hand column the important half.

How it compares with the rest of the family

The four cartilage instruments in this family, and what separates them.

Materials and finish

Every Cottle cartilage crusher we make is cut from high quality medical grade stainless steel. The steel itself is made to a German specification. We do not publish a grade number. The number on a certificate tells a surgeon nothing about whether a bed and a lid still meet flat after two hundred autoclave cycles and a few thousand mallet blows, and whether a serrated bed still has edges on its serrations, and the answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

The bed and the lid are machined as a pair and lapped flat together, and on the serrated version the serrations are cut after that lapping so they are the same depth across the whole face. Serrations that are deeper at one end score the graft unevenly, which is worse than not scoring it at all.

The hinge is set so the lid falls square. There is no sharp external edge anywhere on the block, which matters on an instrument held in a gloved hand and struck.

Caring for it

Open it and wash both faces, and on the serrated version brush along the grooves rather than across them. Crushed cartilage dries into the bottom of a serration and stays there.

Warm water, a soft brush, nothing abrasive on either face. Autoclave open so steam reaches both faces, and store open. Close it empty against the light occasionally: the faces should meet all the way across.

Ordering and wholesale

Every Cottle cartilage crusher is made by Adas Instruments in our own workshop and sold direct, which is why the price sits where it does against the catalog houses. Order one for a single tray, or in quantity for a hospital list or a distributor line. We do OEM work under your own brand and your own item numbers. Send us a sample and we will hold a run to your pattern rather than ours. Stock items ship from our own workshop. Backorder items take 10 to 12 working days to make. Every instrument carries a three year replacement warranty against manufacturing defects. Production is controlled under an ISO 13485 quality management system.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Cottle cartilage crusher used for?

Flattening and softening a harvested cartilage graft so it lies flat and can be shaped. The graft goes in the bed, the lid closes, and the block is tapped with a mallet, which spreads the force across the whole piece at once.

Serrated or smooth, which should I order?

Smooth for a flat pliable sheet with no preferred bend direction, which suits camouflage and spreader grafts. Serrated if the graft has to bend along a chosen line, which suits dorsal onlay work. Units doing regular rhinoplasty usually buy one of each.

How is it different from the Jost crusher?

The Jost is heavier and is built for thick septal cartilage and rib. The Cottle is the everyday block for septal grafts and it is the one with the bed choice. If your work includes rib harvests, you will want both.

Is it squeezed or tapped?

Tapped, with a surgical mallet. A block crusher is not a pair of pliers: the point of the design is that the force arrives evenly across the graft, and a steady squeeze cannot do that.

What size is the bed?

We do not publish a figure, because our own record carries only the serrated or smooth option. Rival listings quote a 15 to 16 mm anvil for the pattern. Ask us before ordering if the size has to match something.

Related products and categories

For denser cartilage and rib, the heavier Jost cartilage crusher. For softening a septum still in the nose, the Gorney septal morselizer. For carving a graft instead of crushing it, the Teflon cartilage cutting block.

The rest of this family sits under nasal cutting, crusher and septum forceps, and the wider set for the operation is under rhinoplasty instruments.