Martin Mammaplasty Caliper Gold | Gold Plated Breast Surgery Marker

What a Martin mammaplasty caliper is

This is a breast planning caliper with a scale on it. Two curved arms span the distance from the sternal notch down to where the nipple is going to sit, and a 0 to 10 cm scale on the frame gives the figure without anything being transferred to a ruler afterwards. It is an instrument that carries the measurement, so the surgeon brings the judgement and the steel holds the number.

That scale is the whole reason to choose it over the plain version. A caliper without one holds a setting that then has to be read somewhere else; this one is read where it is set, which is one fewer step at the point in a case where a step costs a number.

The name is worth a word of warning, because two instruments share most of it. Catalogues and search engines mix up the Martin mammaplasty caliper with the Martin breadth caliper, which is an anthropometric tool for chest and pelvis measurements and is not a breast instrument at all. What is on this page is the breast caliper. There is a row about the other one in the key features below, so nobody buys the wrong thing.

You will also see it listed as a mammaplasty caliper gold, or simply as a gold plated breast caliper. Both are this instrument. It is the only breast caliper 0 10cm scale we make, and the scale is the reason to pick it over the plain one.

Key design features

The 0 to 10 cm scale

Ten centimeters covers the measurements a reduction actually turns on: the notch to nipple distance on a planned position, and the limb lengths once the pattern is being drawn. The figure is read off the frame while the arms are still where you set them.

Curved arms

A straight ruler against a breast either bridges across it or presses into it, and both readings are wrong in different directions. These arms are formed to go around the tissue, so the two points sit where they were put and the metal between them stays clear of the patient.

Gold plated throughout

Not decoration. A long curved instrument among long straight ones takes a moment to find, and this one gets picked up and set down several times during a single marking. The plating stops short of the scale itself, because a layer of plating across an etched graduation is a graduation that is harder to read.

What it is not

There is an anthropometric instrument called a Martin breadth caliper. It is a much larger tool with a 20 inch scale, used to measure chest width, shoulder breadth and pelvis dimensions for body composition work, and it has nothing to do with breast surgery. We do not sell it. If that is what you came for, this is not it.

Which caliper to order

We make two breast planning calipers and the choice between them is the scale.

Where it is used

Breast planning, at the start of the case, before anything is drawn on the skin.

What it measures, and what it must not do

The scale makes this caliper easy to trust, which makes the last two rows worth reading.

How it compares with the rest of the family

Four instruments in this category measure a distance. The shapes differ because the things they measure across differ.

Materials and finish

Every Martin mammaplasty caliper 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 the scale on the frame still reads true after two hundred autoclave cycles, and the answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

The scale is etched into the frame rather than printed on it. A printed scale on a reusable instrument fades, and a faded scale is worse than no scale because it is still being read.

The curve is formed rather than bent to shape afterwards, which is why the two arms meet evenly at the tips instead of crossing. A caliper whose points miss each other reads short, and nobody notices until two sides disagree.

Caring for it

Clean and dry around the moving joint. This is one of the few instruments on a marking tray with arms that work against each other, and a joint washed but not dried is a joint that stiffens.

Clean the etched scale too. Dried surgical ink sits in a graduation and the mark stops being readable long before the steel wears. Autoclave with the rest of the tray, and store it so the arms are not loaded against another instrument, because a formed curve that is leaned on for a year is a curve that has changed.

Gold plating wears at the points of contact before it wears anywhere else, so a caliper that has been in service a few years will show the steel at the joint and along the inside of the arms. That is normal and it does not affect a reading. Plating lifting away in a flake is not normal, and that is a warranty matter.

Ordering and wholesale

The Martin mammaplasty caliper 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 Martin mammaplasty caliper used for?

Measuring the distance from the sternal notch to the planned new nipple position, and then the skin flap dimensions, before a breast reduction or a mastopexy. The figure is read off a 0 to 10 cm scale on the frame.

Is a Martin mammaplasty caliper the same as a Martin breadth caliper?

No, and this is worth being clear about because the names get mixed up. A Martin breadth caliper is an anthropometric instrument with a 20 inch scale for chest, shoulder and pelvis measurements. What we sell here is a breast surgery caliper with a 0 to 10 cm scale. The two are different instruments for different jobs and we do not stock the former.

What is the difference between the Martin and the McKissock mammaplasty caliper?

The scale. The Martin carries 0 to 10 cm etched on the frame and is gold plated throughout at 65 dollars; the McKissock has no scale and is 55 dollars. The curved geometry and the job are the same.

Does the gold plating affect the caliper measurement?

No. The plating stops short of the etched scale and of the measuring points, so a plated frame reads the same as an unplated one. Plating across a graduation would make it harder to read, which is the opposite of the point.

What does a mammaplasty caliper cost?

This one is 65 dollars and the plain McKissock is 55 dollars, both made in our own workshop and sold direct. Catalogue houses list the same instrument from about 87 dollars to over 200 dollars.

Related products and categories

The version without a scale is the McKissock mammaplasty caliper at 55 dollars. Once the nipple position is set, the McKissock keyhole pattern draws the resection from it. For small tissue distances rather than breast spans, the Ginsberg caliper 0-40mm is the instrument.

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