Frazier Suction Tube with Finger Cut Off and Stylet

What a Frazier suction tube is

A frazier suction tube is a one piece steel cannula with an angled shaft, a hole in the handle for the thumb and a wire stylet. Charles Frazier was a neurosurgeon solving a neurosurgeon problem: how to take fluid out of a hole that is deep, narrow and lined with things you must not touch. Everything odd about it follows from that. A large bore in a small space grabs tissue, so the bore is small. A valve is one more thing to clean, so the control is a hole. And a straight shaft would put your own hand in the way of your own eyes, so it bends.

Catalogues list the same instrument as a Ferguson-Frazier tube, and in American operating rooms the tip is asked for more often than the tube. It is the same instrument under all three names. Ours is made here in eight bores and two lengths, and the stylet is included rather than sold as an extra.

Key design features

The angle, and why it is not a straight tube

The shaft bends roughly thirty degrees a little behind the tip, and that one bend is why the pattern has outlived every redesign of it. A straight cannula puts your knuckles and a length of clear tubing between your eye and the thing you are working on, and in a nostril there is nowhere to move either one. The bend lifts both clear while the tip stays flat.

The thumb hole, which is the only control on it

No valve, no tap, no spring. A plain hole is drilled through the flat of the handle where the thumb rests. Cover it and the vacuum goes to the tip; slide the thumb back and air comes in instead, so the pull drops to almost nothing without anyone touching the machine. It also gives the one move that matters when the tip grabs mucosa, which is to vent rather than pull harder.

The stylet

A thin wire with a small flat grip comes with every tube. A bore this narrow blocks, and it blocks at the worst moment, usually with bone dust off a burr or a clot that has begun to organize. The stylet goes in at the handle and pushes the plug out of the tip in a second. Ours passes the full bore, is thin enough not to score it, and is replaceable.

One piece, with nothing to come apart

Handle, shaft and tip are one piece of steel: no brazed joint behind the tip, no threaded collar, no gasket. That matters more here than anywhere else in the tray. A suction instrument spends its working life full of blood and its cleaning life full of detergent, and a seam is somewhere for protein to sit where no brush reaches.

Which size to order, and how Frazier sizes are counted

Frazier suction tubes are sized in French gauge, not in millimeters. The French number is three times the outside diameter in millimeters, so a 12 Fr tube is about 4mm across and a 5 Fr is under 2mm. That is the convention the whole trade uses and what our own size attribute carries, so a request for an 8mm Frazier usually means 8 Fr.

Where it is used

The pattern crosses specialties because the problem it solves is a shape problem rather than a tissue one. Anywhere the field is narrow and deep, this is the sucker that fits.

What it clears, and what it must not touch

A 2mm bore is the character of the instrument, in both directions. It reaches where nothing wider reaches, and blocks on what a wider tube would swallow.

How it compares with the other suction patterns

Five patterns get asked for by name here and they are not interchangeable. Three of them we make and two we do not.

Materials and finish

Every frazier suction tube 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, because the number on a certificate tells a surgeon nothing about whether a 2mm lumen still runs clear after two hundred autoclave cycles, and the answer to that is in the bore and the finish rather than in the alloy.

The bore is drawn and then finished from both ends, which is the part of making a suction tube that nobody sees and everybody feels. A burr at the tip pulls mucosa into itself; a ridge halfway down holds a clot no flushing shifts. The outside gets a satin finish rather than a mirror one, because a mirror shaft throws endoscope light back at the camera. The thumb hole is deburred by hand, being the one edge a surgeon touches all operation.

Caring for it

Flush it while it is still wet. A syringe of warm water in at the handle and out at the tip does more for a suction tube than anything later in the day, and the stylet should go through once too. Dried blood in a 2mm lumen is why suction tubes get thrown away, and it is almost always avoidable.

After that, ultrasonic cleaning with the stylet out, a neutral pH enzymatic detergent, a rinse in deionized water, then dry it fully before it packs. Autoclave at 134 degrees Celsius. Do not leave it soaking in saline, which pits steel faster than blood does, and keep steel bristle brushes out of the bore: they score it and give the next clot a hold.

Ordering and wholesale

Every Frazier suction tube we sell 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 set, or in quantity for a hospital list or a distributor line; we do OEM work under your own brand and your own item numbers, and we will hold a run to your pattern rather than ours if you send a sample. 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 Frazier suction tube used for?

It takes blood, irrigation fluid and debris out of a field too narrow or too deep for a wider sucker: nasal, sinus and ear surgery, septal and rhinoplasty work, spinal corridors and oral quadrants. The thumb hole lets the surgeon change the pull single handed.

What is another name for a suction tube?

Suction tip is the one you will hear most in an American operating room, and it is the word most buyers type, so a search for Frazier suction tips and a search for Frazier suction tubes are both looking for this instrument. Catalogues also list this pattern as a Ferguson-Frazier tube, and older ones say suction cannula. One word that does not mean this instrument is suction tubing, the disposable hose running back to the machine.

What are the differences between Baron suction and Frazier suction?

Less than most buyers expect. Both are fine angled suction tubes with a thumb hole and both run in French gauge bores over much the same range. The Baron pattern has a different handle and most Baron tubes come without a stylet, while a Frazier normally has one. We make the Frazier and not the Baron, and would rather say so than send one for the other.

What is the stylet on a Frazier suction tube for?

Clearing the bore. A tube this narrow blocks with bone dust off a burr or with clot that has begun to organize, and when it blocks the field fills in seconds. The wire goes in at the handle and pushes the plug out of the tip. It is also the fastest way to check a tube is clear before the first incision rather than after it.

Why does the finger cut off matter?

Because the pull you want changes every few seconds and the machine is across the room. Hole covered, you get all the pump can give; thumb lifted, almost nothing. That lets you hold the tip against mucosa without tearing it, and gives an instant release when the tip does grab.

Related products and categories

Buying the range at once costs less than buying bores singly, and the Frazier suction tube set of 7 covers 5 Fr to 12 Fr. For a tighter opening without the bend, look at the Adson suction tube. Where the job is lifting tissue as well as clearing it, the Gorney septum suction elevator does both. The rest of the family sits in suction instruments, and the nasal patterns are listed under rhinoplasty instruments.