Lockwood Abdominal Demarcator 32cm | 9.5mm Wide Blade Flap Forceps

What an abdominal demarcator is

Catalogues list this as a Lockwood abdominal flap demarcator, and sometimes just as flap forceps. All three names describe the same instrument, and the thing that makes it different from the other abdominal markers is that its shafts are angled rather than straight.

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. The angle does two things at once. It lifts the handles out of the surgeon’s line of sight, and it lets the jaws go into a site that is deeper than a straight instrument can comfortably enter. Add a 9.5 mm blade and it will take hold of a layer of fat and skin that the facial patterns would slide off.

It is the only angled flap demarcator in the range, and that is how to pick it out of a catalogue. Some lists file it as an abdominal wall flap forceps, which is fair enough: a hernia repair and an abdominal wall reconstruction are both places a straight instrument struggles to reach.

Key design features

Angled shafts, which is the whole reason it exists

Every other marker in this category is straight. This one is not, and the difference shows up in two places: a deep site, where a straight instrument has to come in at the wrong angle to reach, and a long line, where straight handles sit in the way of the thing being marked. The angle solves both.

A 9.5 mm blade

Wider than the facial patterns and wider than the straight abdominal Pitanguy. On a thick, heavy flap a narrow jaw concentrates the load, which means it either lets go or marks the skin harder than anyone wanted. A 9.5 mm contact spreads it.

32 cm, with long flap arms

Long enough to place the jaws near the midline with the hands out at the edge of the field. That is what lets a long line be marked in a few even bites rather than in a dozen short ones, and an even line is the whole point of using an instrument instead of a judgement.

It marks under tension

Like every clamping marker here, it does not draw where you tell it to. The jaws take the flap and put it at the tension it will be closed at, and the line it leaves is wherever the spare tissue actually ends. On an abdomen, where the flap is heavy and its own weight changes the answer, that matters more than anywhere else.

Which abdominal marker to order

Three instruments for an abdominal flap, and the choice is about depth, thickness and whether you want a lock.

Where it is used

The abdominal wall, and it is the only marker here that is genuinely at home in a repair as well as in a cosmetic case.

What it marks, and what it must not do

Angled shafts and a long reach give a surgeon leverage, which is the reason for row two.

How it compares with the rest of the family

Six clamping markers here. This is the only one with angled shafts and the widest jaw of any of them.

Materials and finish

Every abdominal 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 an angled shaft still brings the jaws together squarely after two hundred autoclave cycles, and the answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

An angled instrument is harder to make than a straight one and the reason is the jaws. The angle has to be formed first and the jaws aligned afterwards, because any error in the bend is carried the whole length of the shaft and arrives at the tip multiplied. Jaws aligned before the bend will not meet after it.

The shafts are left plain and slightly flattened. A round shaft at 32 cm twists in a wet glove, and on an angled instrument a twist also changes where the jaws are pointing.

Caring for it

Clean the blade and the jaw faces properly, and get the ink and tissue out of them before anything dries. A 9.5 mm blade holds more residue than a narrow one simply because there is more of it, and a blade with dried residue on it marks unevenly across its width.

Autoclave with the rest of the tray. Nothing to release and nothing to lubricate. Store it supported along its length, with the jaws open. Thirty two centimeters of angled instrument hanging off the edge of a tray for a year is a bend that has changed, and on this instrument the bend is the design.

Ordering and wholesale

The Lockwood abdominal 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 Lockwood abdominal demarcator used for?

Marking, outlining and delineating the boundaries of excess skin and tissue flaps that need to be excised or harvested, mainly in abdominoplasty, hernia repair and abdominal wall reconstruction. The jaws hold the flap at closing tension and the mark goes on while it is there.

Why does the Lockwood abdominal demarcator have angled shafts?

To get the jaws into a deep or awkward site without the handles following them in, and to keep the handles out of the surgeon’s line of sight along a long mark. It is the only angled instrument in this category.

How wide is the blade on the abdominal demarcator?

9.5 mm, on a 32 cm instrument. That is the widest jaw of any marker we make, and the reason is that a thick layer of abdominal fat and skin needs the load spread or it slips out of a narrow one.

Lockwood or Pitanguy for an abdominal flap?

Lockwood if the site is deep or the flap is thick, because of the angle and the 9.5 mm blade. Pitanguy if the flap is reachable with a straight instrument and a 5 mm contact is enough. Ours are 32.50 dollars and 48 dollars.

Is an abdominal demarcator the same as an abdominal retractor?

No, and the two get confused in search results constantly. A retractor holds tissue out of the way so a surgeon can see or work. A demarcator takes hold of a flap, puts it under the tension it will be closed at, and marks the line of excision. Different job, different instrument.

Related products and categories

The straight abdominal alternative is the Pitanguy large flap demarcator 311mm at 48 dollars, and for a ratcheted hold on an abdominal flap the D’Assumpcao abdominoplasty flap marker is 28.60 dollars. For a facial flap the Pitanguy small flap demarcator is the short pattern.

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