Cervical Biopsy Instrument Set, 6 Pieces

What a cervical biopsy instrument set is

A cervical biopsy instrument set is the small group of instruments a gynecologist uses to see the cervix, take a piece of it and send that piece to the lab. Google’s own summary puts it in plain terms: the set is used to obtain tissue from the cervix, most often to follow up an abnormal Pap smear or a positive HPV test. It is a clinic tray more than an operating room one.

Ours is deliberately small. Six pieces, five patterns, 0.42 kg with the box. The one that does the real work is the Van Doren forceps. Everything else exposes the cervix, handles swabs or trims what the forceps has taken.

Google’s list for this kind of tray is longer than ours, and the difference is worth stating before anyone orders. It names a tenaculum to steady the cervix and an endocervical curette to sample the canal. This set has neither. Clinics that sample the canal on every visit should add a curette, or look at our dilatation and curettage tray, which carries tenacula.

Google also quotes bite sizes for the punch jaws on some rival forceps. We do not publish a bite size for our Van Doren, because it is not on our own record, and we would rather leave the cell empty than copy somebody else’s figure.

The question buyers put to us most about this tray is why it is so light. The answer is the clinic it lives in. A colposcopy list can see a long run of patients in a morning, and the nurse turning the trays around wants six pieces to wash between patients, not twenty. Anything a clinic needs only now and then is better kept in its own packet than carried through every cycle.

Key design features

The Van Doren biopsy forceps

A 25 cm shaft with an S-curve, so the jaw reaches the cervix past the speculum while the surgeon’s hand sits low and out of the line of sight. Among the types of cervical biopsy forceps, the long S-curved Van Doren is the pattern chosen for exactly that reason: you can see what you bite.

Kristeller specula, not a duckbill

The Kristeller set is two separate conical blades, Fig.2, one for each wall. Separate blades can be placed and angled one at a time, which gives a wider view of the cervix than a hinged duckbill in some patients. It also means an assistant, or a weighted speculum, holds the posterior blade.

Long curved dressing forceps

Two Gross-Maier dressing forceps, 27 cm, curved. They carry swabs to the cervix to clean it before the bite and press on the site after it to stop the bleeding. Two are in the box because one is always holding a swab while the other is reached for.

Small enough to sit on a clinic trolley

The standard dressing forceps, 20 cm straight, and the operating scissors, 14.5 cm curved with one sharp and one blunt blade, finish the set. The box fits a colposcopy trolley shelf, which is where this tray spends most of its life.

What is in the tray, piece by piece

Read off our own pattern record for item AD-95540. The figures are ours, and where a figure is missing the cell says so.

Where the set is used

Most of this tray’s work is done at colposcopy, in a clinic room rather than an operating room.

What it does, and what it must not be asked to do

The tray is light on purpose. Its limits are the things it was never built to carry.

How it compares with the other gynecology sets

Our four smaller gynecology trays cover different parts of the same patient pathway.

Materials and finish

Every piece in this cervical biopsy instrument set is made from high quality medical grade stainless steel. The steel itself is made to a German specification. We do not publish a grade number. The thing a buyer needs to know is whether the Van Doren jaw still closes square after two hundred autoclave cycles, and no number on a certificate answers that.

The two cups of the Van Doren jaw are ground as a pair and checked by closing them on a sheet of tissue paper: a clean cut all the way round, or the pair goes back to the bench. The specula blades are polished on the side that faces the tissue and left satin on the outside so the light does not glare back at the colposcope.

Caring for it

Rinse the Van Doren jaw straight after use. Tissue left in the cups dries hard and dulls the edge of the cups the next time they close. Open the jaw fully in the autoclave.

Test the bite each month on tissue paper. A jaw that tears instead of cutting crushes the sample, and a crushed sample is one the lab may not be able to read. That is the point to send it back for regrinding, before the clinic notices.

Ordering and wholesale

Every piece of the cervical biopsy instrument set 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 kind of instrument is used for a cervical biopsy?

A punch biopsy forceps, a long instrument with a small cutting jaw at the tip. Ours is the Van Doren pattern, 25 cm with an S-curved shaft. A speculum exposes the cervix and dressing forceps handle the swabs.

What are the different types of biopsy forceps?

Cervical biopsy forceps differ mainly in jaw shape and shaft. Common patterns include the Tischler, the Kevorkian and the Van Doren. Our set carries the Van Doren, chosen for its long S-curved reach past the speculum.

Are biopsy forceps for colposcopy different from other biopsy forceps?

They are longer and usually curved, because the jaw has to reach the cervix through a speculum while the colposcope looks over the surgeon’s hand. Our Van Doren is 25 cm for that reason.

Does this set include a tenaculum or an endocervical curette?

No. Our cervical biopsy instrument set has neither. Add a curette if you sample the canal, or see our dilatation and curettage set, which carries two tenacula.

What bite size is the Van Doren jaw?

We do not publish one, because it is not on our own record. Rival listings quote bite sizes for other patterns. Ask us before ordering if a figure has to match your protocol.

Related products and categories

After the result comes back, the cervix cauterization instrument set is the steel support for treatment. The hymenectomy instrument set is our general minor gynecology tray, and the dilatation and curettage instrument set samples the uterine lining.

All of our trays for this specialty sit under gynecology and obstetrics instrument sets, and the full range of procedure trays is under surgical instrument sets.