Fraenkel Laryngeal Polypus Forceps | 18 cm, Oval Cup Tip

What a Fraenkel laryngeal polypus forceps is

This is the only laryngeal forceps we make, and it sits among nasal instruments for one reason: a polypus forceps is defined by what it does to a growth rather than by which cavity the growth is in.

What it does is take hold of something and bring it out intact. The tip is an oval cup, sometimes called spoon shaped, and a cup is a different idea from a jaw. A jaw squeezes tissue between two faces; a cup encloses it, so the specimen reaches the laboratory looking like what was removed. That is the whole argument for a laryngeal biopsy forceps over anything that crushes.

The shaft is curved, and the curve is the other half of the design: the bend puts the hand below the line of sight, so the surgeon looks down the instrument at the tissue instead of past their own knuckles. The route into a larynx bends twice before it arrives, so the instrument has to bend as well. Google’s own answer describes a sickle curve, a 110 degree angled shaft and a downward curved geometry across the variants it found, all for the same reason: navigating the upper airway.

Our record is thin on this one and it is worth saying so. It carries no attribute set at all, so the only numbers we publish are the 18 cm in its own name and the item code. Aesculap and Sklar quote 265 mm overall, 170 mm working and a 12 mm cup on their versions. Ask us for a length and you will get ours measured rather than borrowed.

One correction worth making in public. This product’s old title carried two phrases, an apex hold specimen anchor and a clear path oropharyngeal shield. Neither appears in any rival listing or clinical source we can find. They are not trade vocabulary and not features of this instrument, so they are gone.

Key design features

An oval cup, not a flat jaw

The tip encloses rather than squeezes. On a polyp going for histology that is the difference between a sample and a smear, and on a vocal cord lesion it is the difference between taking the lesion and taking the cord with it.

A shaft curved to the airway

A larynx sits round a corner from the mouth. A straight forceps long enough to reach it would come in along the line of your own view, which is the one place it cannot be. The curve moves the handle out of that line and leaves the tip where it needs to be.

No lock

Nothing holds the cup closed for you. On an airway instrument that is right: you take hold, you feel what you have, you let go if it is wrong, and nothing stays clamped on a cord while you are looking elsewhere.

One length, 18 cm

We make this pattern in one working length and we would rather say so than imply a range we do not stock. 18 cm reaches a larynx through a mouth without becoming unwieldy, and it is in the product name because it is the only dimension on our record.

What to order, and what we do not publish

The shortest size table in this category, and the most honest one, because 8627 carries no attribute set on our record at all.

Where it is used

Laryngeal forceps uses make a short list, and every one of them is upper airway.

What it holds, and what it must not do

Everything here follows from the tip being a cup and the patient having an airway.

How it compares with the other grasping instruments

All four of these are on this page of the catalog for the same reason: they all take hold of something down a corridor.

Materials and finish

Every Fraenkel laryngeal polypus forceps 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. A certificate says nothing about whether a curved shaft still puts the cup where your hand expects it after two years of operating room work, because a laryngeal forceps that has moved a degree is pointing at something other than what you are looking at. The answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

The curve is formed and then stress relieved, and on this pattern that step is not optional. A long curved shaft carries every load as a bending load, and a cold bend that was never relieved will relax a little each year until the tip no longer sits where the handle says it does.

The two halves of the cup are ground as a matched pair so the rim meets all the way round rather than closing at the front first. A cup that touches at the front and gapes at the back lets soft tissue out of the one place it was meant to be held, and that gap is invisible down an airway.

Caring for it

Open it to clean it, and brush the inside of the cup. Tissue stays in a cup in a way it does not on a flat jaw, which is the price of the design.

Warm water, a soft brush, flush and dry open. Autoclave with the tray. Close the cup slowly against a light every few months: the rim should meet along its whole length with no daylight at the back. Check the curve against a flat surface too, because a dropped laryngeal forceps lands on its shaft.

Ordering and wholesale

Every Fraenkel laryngeal polypus forceps 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 are Fraenkel laryngeal polypus forceps used for?

Removing polyps, mucosal growths and vocal cord lesions from the larynx, taking laryngeal biopsies, and reaching a foreign body in the upper airway. The oval cup brings a specimen out whole and the curve gets round the corner from the mouth.

What is the difference between a cup forceps and a toothed forceps?

A cup encloses tissue; teeth or flat jaws squeeze it. For a biopsy or a lesion on a vocal cord the cup is the better instrument, because the sample stays readable and the cord is not flattened, and that is why the trade also lists this pattern as a laryngeal cup forceps. For gauze and dressings you want teeth, which is a dressing forceps.

Is it the same as a Fraenkel laryngeal forceps without the word polypus?

Yes. Aesculap and Sklar both list this pattern without the word polypus, and the trade uses both names for the same instrument. We carry the longer name because the instrument’s job is polyps and growths.

What length is it?

18 cm, which is in the product name and is the one working length we make on this pattern. We do not publish an overall length or a cup width, because our own record carries no attribute set for this product and we will not copy figures off somebody else’s listing. Ask us and we will measure.

Can it be used in the nose?

It will reach, but it is the wrong shape for a nostril, because the curve is cut for the airway. For nasal polyps use the Hartmann nasal polypus forceps or one of the two snares, which are built for the straight run into a nose.

Related products and categories

For placing and removing dressings in an ear or a nose, the Troeltsch ear dressing forceps and the Jansen ear dressing forceps. For a growth in the nose rather than the airway, the Hartmann nasal polypus forceps.

The rest of this family sits under nasal speculum and polypus instruments, and this pattern also sits with the tonsillectomy instruments.