UC Irvine Cartilage Cutter

Device Function: Produces uniform costal cartilage grafts for facial reconstructive surgery.

This is our first surgical device brought to market and will be available through Anthony Products early 2011. We are now taking pre-orders.

Revision rhinoplasty surgery often requires precisely cut rib cartilage tissue to reconstruct the framework of the nose. Most of these grafts are hand carved, and are irregular in thickness. For over 70 years, plastic surgeons have tried to build a device that cuts rib cartilage in thin slabs with high precision. We�ve come up with a solution.

This is a two-component apparatus. The first component is a double-bladed cutter that is composed of two parallel blades that are separated by a user defined distance. As the blades of the cutter are pushed through the cartilage, a uniformly thick slice is obtained. The second component is a platform that secures the costal cartilage in proper position during cutting and provides a guide for the cutter. The importance of this device is that it yields highly uniform slices from the central core of rib. These slices are used as grafts in facial reconstructive procedures, such as in rhinoplasty.

Download manual (pdf, 1.0MB)