McIndoes Bone Cutting Forceps | Double Action

What McIndoes bone cutting forceps are

Bone cutting forceps are built like heavy shears and the only real question about any of them is how the force gets to the blades. Google’s own explanation is the clearest short one: double action forceps use a dual pivot mechanism to vastly increase mechanical advantage, while single action forceps are lighter and suited to lower density bone.

The McIndoes is the double action pattern. Two hinges, so the surgeon’s grip is multiplied twice before it reaches the blade, and the cut is made by the geometry of the instrument rather than by force of hand. That matters because the alternative to leverage is leaning on the handles, and leaning on a bone cutter inside a nose is how a controlled cut becomes a fracture going somewhere nobody chose.

Catalogs list the class as a bone cutter forceps, as a bone cutter double action in the trade word order, as a double action bone cutting forceps written out in full, and as a bone biting forceps. Four names, one instrument.

It is taught, and it is taught by its mechanism. Two of the phrases people type into Google are “a bone cutting instrument with two hinges in the middle” and “a bone cutting instrument that has one hinge”, which are the exam question and its distractor. This instrument is the first of those.

One thing has to be said because the search data says it loudly. GOOGLE THINKS McINDOE MEANS SCISSORS. Our own Search Console records “mcindoe scissors” reaching this site at position 50.8, and the McIndoe name does belong to a well known pair of scissors. This product is a BONE CUTTING FORCEPS. We have deliberately not taken the scissors phrase as a keyword, because a visitor who clicks it wants a different instrument.

There is no attribute set on this product, so no jaw figure and no length appears on this page. The double action comes from our own product name and our own older copy.

Key design features

Double action, and what the second hinge actually does

One hinge gives the blades whatever the hand gives the handles, reduced by the ratio of the lever. A second hinge compounds that ratio, and the usual figure quoted for the arrangement is roughly double. The practical effect is that the surgeon stops squeezing hard, and stopping squeezing hard is what keeps a bone cut where it was aimed.

Spring handles

The handles push themselves apart, so the blades open between cuts without the surgeon doing anything. On a nose that takes six or eight cuts it means the instrument is always ready, and it is the small feature that makes a heavy instrument feel quick.

Blades for bone, not for cartilage alone

Heavier and blunter than anything in the nasal cutting family. They are made to divide bone and thick cartilage, which means they are the wrong instrument for mucosa, for polyp tissue and for anything delicate, and the comparison table says so.

Nothing plumbed into it

Steel, two hinges and a spring. No coating, no insert, no ratchet, no light. Nothing to flush, nothing to wear through and nothing on it that is not doing work.

What to order, and what we do not publish

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

Where it is used

Bone work, in the nose and around it.

What it holds back, and what it must not do

This is the strongest instrument in the category and the right hand column is the whole point of the table.

How it compares with the rest of the family

Two bone cutters on this site and two instruments that get confused with them.

Materials and finish

Every McIndoes bone cutting 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. The number on a certificate tells a surgeon nothing about whether two hinges still share the load after two hundred autoclave cycles, because a double action joint where one pivot is tighter than the other cuts crooked long before it cuts badly, and the answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

Both pivots are machined and fitted as a pair. On a double action instrument they have to carry the same share of the load; one that is slightly tighter takes more of it, wears faster, and the blades gradually stop meeting square. It is the fault that ends a bone cutter and it starts in the hinges rather than at the edge.

The blades are hardened and then ground, in that order, so the edge is hard all the way through rather than hardened on the surface. There is no sharp external edge anywhere on the outline.

Caring for it

Wash both joints open, every time. Bone cutting produces debris rather than staining, and a double action joint with bone dust in it is stiff on the next case and worn by the tenth.

Warm water and a soft brush. Autoclave with the tray. Close the blades empty and look along the edge: they should meet along their whole length, and a pair that meets at the tip only is an instrument crushing bone rather than cutting it.

Ordering and wholesale

Every McIndoes bone cutting 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 bone cutting forceps used for?

Cutting, dividing and bisecting bone and tough bony tissue. In the nose that means nasal bone, the bony septum and the thick cartilage a nasal cutting forceps cannot manage.

What does double action mean on a bone cutter?

That there are two hinges rather than one. The force is multiplied twice before it reaches the blades, which roughly doubles the mechanical advantage. Google puts it as a dual pivot mechanism that vastly increases mechanical advantage against a single action instrument suited to lower density bone.

Is this the McIndoe scissors?

No. The McIndoe name belongs to a well known pair of scissors as well as to this bone cutting forceps, and our own search data shows people looking for the scissors and arriving here. This product is the bone cutting forceps and we have not taken the scissors phrase as a keyword for that reason.

McIndoes or Cottle Kazanjian?

Both are double action bone cutters and either will do the work. The Cottle Kazanjian is the pattern most often specified on a rhinoplasty tray by name; the McIndoes is the plainer double action cutter. The comparison table above sets them side by side.

What size are the jaws?

We do not publish a figure, because there is no attribute set on this product at all. Ask us before ordering if a dimension has to be matched, and it is on our list to measure.

Related products and categories

The other double action bone cutter in this family is the Cottle Kazanjian bone cutting forceps. For cartilage and thin bone on the septum instead, the Jansen Middleton through cutting forceps. For flattening the cartilage once it is out, the Cottle cartilage crusher.

The rest of this family sits under nasal cutting, crusher and septum forceps, and the chisels and gouges that work on bone alongside it are under osteotomes, chisels and gouges.