Gorney Septal Morselizer | Double Action, Tungsten Carbide

What a Gorney septal morselizer is

A deviated septum is not always a septum in the wrong place. Sometimes it is a septum in the right place that will not stay there, because the cartilage has a memory and springs back to the curve it has held for twenty years. You can cut the curved part out, which costs you cartilage you might want later, or you can take the spring out of it where it sits.

That is what a morselizer does. The jaws close on a line of cartilage and crush it just enough to break the fibers that are holding the curve, without cutting through and without removing anything. The cartilage is still there, still supporting the nose, and it now bends where it is told to.

The Gorney septal morselizer is the double action pattern, which matters more here than on most instruments. A single hinge gives you whatever your hand gives it; two hinges multiply it, and crushing cartilage takes real force applied evenly rather than a hard squeeze at one point. The crushing faces carry tungsten carbide inserts for the same reason the carbide forceps do: a crushing face that has polished smooth slides instead of biting.

It is listed as a septal morselizer, a septum morselizer forceps, a double action morselizer and as a cartilage morselizer, which Google uses as the plain alias of cartilage crusher. This is the handheld version of that job. The block crushers in this family do the same thing to a graft on a bench, where a block crusher is not squeezed, it is tapped with a mallet, which is how the force stays even across the whole graft.

One honest note about the URL. The web address of this page spells the instrument “morselize”. That is a typo from years ago and the address is frozen, because changing it would break every link and bookmark pointing at it. The instrument is a morselizer and the page now says so everywhere except in the address bar.

Key design features

Double action, and why it is not a luxury here

Two hinges rather than one. The mechanical advantage roughly doubles, which means the cartilage is crushed by the instrument rather than by the strength of the hand holding it. On a job that is about even pressure along a line, that is the difference between softening cartilage and splitting it.

Tungsten carbide crushing faces

Inserts brazed into the jaws, not a coating. A crushing face works by biting into a slippery surface and holding it still while the force builds, and a face that has polished smooth skids sideways instead. Carbide keeps the bite for the life of the instrument.

It crushes a LINE, not a point

The faces are long enough to take a strip of cartilage in one closure. A septum softened at three separate points has three weak spots and two stiff sections between them; softened along a line, it bends as one piece. That is the whole clinical argument for the pattern.

No ratchet, no lock, no coating

Hand pressure, released as soon as the jaws are opened. Nothing holds the instrument closed on tissue, which on a crushing instrument is a safety feature rather than a missing one.

What to order, and what we do not publish

One pattern, so this table is the specification and its limits.

Where it is used

Septal work where the cartilage is worth keeping. The Gorney septal morselizer is reached for in all four of these.

What it holds back, and what it must not do

Crushing is a one way operation and that is the point of the right hand column.

How it compares with the rest of the family

Three instruments in this family crush cartilage and the difference is where the cartilage is when they do it.

Materials and finish

Every Gorney septal morselizer 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 two hinges still line up after two hundred autoclave cycles, because a double action joint that has worn out of line crushes harder on one side than the other, and the answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

Both pivots are machined and fitted as a pair rather than drilled and pinned separately. On a double action instrument the two hinges have to share the load; one that is slightly tighter than the other takes more of it and wears faster, and the instrument ends up crushing unevenly along the face.

The carbide inserts are brazed into seats and finished flush with the steel around them. There is no sharp external edge anywhere on the outline.

Caring for it

Nothing abrasive on the crushing faces. The bite is the instrument and an abrasive pad takes it off.

Wash both joints open, because there are two of them and both hold blood. Warm water and a soft brush. Autoclave with the tray. Close the jaws empty every so often and look along the faces: they should meet along their whole length, and a pair that now touches at one end only is a double action joint that has gone out of line.

Ordering and wholesale

Every Gorney septal morselizer 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 does a septal morselizer do?

It crushes a line of septal cartilage so the cartilage will bend and stay bent, without cutting anything out. It is the alternative to resecting a curved section: the cartilage stays in place supporting the nose and loses the spring that was pulling it off line.

What is the difference between a morselizer and a cartilage crusher?

Mostly where the cartilage is. A morselizer is handheld and works on cartilage still in the nose. A crusher is a block that sits on a bench and flattens a harvested graft, and it is tapped with a mallet rather than squeezed. Google uses the two words as aliases and in practice the instruments are different shapes for different moments.

Why double action?

Because crushing cartilage takes real force applied evenly. Two hinges roughly double the mechanical advantage, so the pressure comes from the instrument rather than from how hard the surgeon can squeeze, and even pressure is what softens cartilage instead of splitting it.

What are the jaw dimensions?

We do not publish them, because our own record carries no attribute set for this product. Ask us before ordering if a crush width has to be matched, and it is on our list to measure.

Why does the web address say morselize?

Because it was typed that way years ago and web addresses do not get changed here: altering it would break every link and bookmark pointing at this page. The instrument is a morselizer and the page says so everywhere it can.

Related products and categories

For flattening a harvested graft on a bench instead, the Cottle cartilage crusher with a serrated or smooth bed, or the heavier Jost cartilage crusher. For moving the septum rather than softening it, the Asch septum straightening forceps.

The rest of this family sits under nasal cutting, crusher and septum forceps, and the instruments that lift and separate rather than crush are under dissectors and elevators.