Pitanguy Large Flap Demarcator 311mm | Abdominal Flap Marking Forceps

What a Pitanguy large flap demarcator is

An abdominoplasty asks the same question a facelift asks and asks it on a much larger scale. The flap has been mobilised, it overlaps, and the surgeon has to know how much comes off. The difference is the distances involved and the thickness of what is being held.

This is the large Pitanguy. It is an instrument that finds the measurement, because the overlap the jaws take up is itself the answer to how much skin is spare. 311 mm of instrument puts the jaws across an abdominal flap while the hands stay outside the field, the lower jaw stretches the flap to closing tension, and the inked upper jaw prints the line when the jaws close.

This page used to carry the phrase surgical skin marker in its title, and that has been taken out on purpose. Those words belong to the single use ink applicators sold by the box, which is a large market and not this one. Fifty disposables cost less than a tenth of what this instrument costs and do a completely different job, and pointing the two at each other served nobody. What this is, is a forceps that finds the line.

The names that do fit it are plain ones. A Pitanguy demarcator 311mm, an abdominal flap demarcator, or on a body contouring list a torso flap marking forceps. All three mean this instrument.

Key design features

311 mm, and why length is the feature

A facial demarcator is about 150 mm because a facial flap is within reach. An abdominal flap is not. At 311 mm the jaws can be placed near the midline with both hands out at the edge of the field, which is the only way a long line gets marked evenly rather than in sections.

The lower jaw stretches the flap

Thicker tissue needs more than a backing plate. The lower jaw takes the flap and puts it under the tension it will be closed at, which on an abdomen is a real load. Skin and fat measured slack and closed under tension are two different measurements.

The inked upper jaw

Surgical ink goes on the upper jaw and transfers when the jaws close, printing a continuous line rather than a row of dots. On a line this long a continuous mark is much easier to follow with a blade. It is reusable steel that applies ink, not a disposable that contains it.

Long shanks, no ratchet

Nothing locks. The grip is held while the mark goes on and released immediately. On a flap this size the surgeon is usually repositioning along the line rather than holding one spot, so a ratchet would be releasing and re-engaging constantly. If you want a lock on an abdominal flap, that is the D’Assumpcao abdominoplasty pattern.

Which abdominal marker to order

We make three instruments for an abdominal flap and they differ in reach, in bite and in whether anything locks.

Where it is used

Torso work, where the flap is large and the line is long.

What it marks, and what it must not do

A long instrument magnifies whatever happens at the handle, so rows two and three matter more here than on the facial pattern.

How it compares with the rest of the family

Six clamping markers in this category, three facial and three for a torso. This is the longest of them.

Materials and finish

Every Pitanguy large flap demarcator 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 the jaws still meet squarely at the end of 311 mm of shank after two hundred autoclave cycles, and the answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

Jaw alignment is the whole of the making on a long demarcator and it is harder than it looks. Any error at the joint is multiplied by the length of the shank, so a pair of jaws that would meet acceptably on a 150 mm instrument will meet at one end only on a 311 mm one. They are set after the shanks are formed, in that order, for exactly that reason.

The shanks are left plain and slightly flattened. A round shank at this length rolls on a tray and twists in a wet glove, and a demarcator that twists prints a line that wanders.

Caring for it

Wash the ink off both jaws under running water immediately after use. Dried ink in the upper jaw is why a demarcator starts printing a broken line, and on a long line a broken print means going back over ground that has already moved.

Autoclave with the rest of the tray. Nothing to release and nothing to lubricate. Store it flat with the jaws open, and support it along its length rather than letting 311 mm of instrument hang off the edge of a tray, because a long shank that is loaded for a year is a long shank that has moved.

Ordering and wholesale

The Pitanguy large flap demarcator is made in our own workshop and sold direct, which is why the price sits where it does against the catalogue 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 Pitanguy large flap demarcator used for?

Marking the line of excision on a mobilised abdominal or torso flap. The lower jaw grips and stretches the flap to closing tension and the inked upper jaw prints the line when the jaws close. It is used in abdominoplasty and large torso reconstruction.

How long is the Pitanguy large flap demarcator?

311 mm. That is roughly twice the 156 mm facial pattern, and the length is the point: the jaws reach across an abdominal flap while the hands stay out at the edge of the field.

What is the difference between the large and small Pitanguy flap demarcator?

Reach and bite. The large pattern is 311 mm for an abdomen or a torso; the small pattern is 156 mm with fine points for a face. Ours are 48 dollars and 22 dollars.

Is a Pitanguy demarcator a surgical skin marker?

It marks skin and it uses surgical ink, so in that sense yes, but it is a reusable steel forceps rather than a disposable applicator. The important difference is that it finds the line by holding the flap under tension, which nothing you simply draw with can do.

Pitanguy or Lockwood for an abdominal flap?

Pitanguy if the flap is reachable with a straight instrument and you want a 5 mm contact. Lockwood if the site is deep or the layer of fat and skin is thick, because its shafts are angled and its blade is 9.5 mm wide. Ours are 48 dollars and 32.50 dollars.

Related products and categories

The facial version of the same pattern is the Pitanguy small flap demarcator at 22 dollars. For a deep site or a thicker flap the Lockwood abdominal demarcator 32cm has angled shafts and a wider blade, and for TRAM and DIEP flap work the D’Assumpcao abdominoplasty flap marker adds a ratchet.

The rest of the family sits under marking and measuring instruments, and the wider set for this operation is under abdominoplasty instruments.