Instrument |
Uses |
Spectacles (glasses) |
to correct refractive errors of the eye; not invasive |
Contact lenses |
to correct refractive errors of the eye; a little invasive |
Phoropter |
used in refraction testing |
Tonometers |
used to determine the intraoccular pressure (IOP) - useful in glaucoma; vide link for various types of tonometers. |
Speculum: |
to keep the eyes open during any operation |
Universal eye speculum |
-do-; heavy instrument and can not keep eyelashes out of the operating field |
•Guarded eye speculum (left and right) |
-do-; heavy instrument but can keep eyelashes out of the operating field with its "guard" and hence left or right ones are required |
•Wire Speculum |
to keep the eyes open during any operation; light wire instrument |
Needle holders: |
holding the needle in position while applying sutures |
•Silcock's needle holder |
-do-; has a catch and is used for heavier gauge needles; used mainly for skin, muscle and corneal incisions |
•Arruga's needle holder |
-do-; has a catch (lock) and is used for heavier gauge needles (thicker than 6-0); used mainly for skin, muscle and corneal incisions |
•Barraquer's needle holder |
-do-; small instrument with a spring action with or without a catch used for finer gauge needles (5-0 or finer); used mainly for intraoccular incisions |
Forceps: |
to hold anything |
•Artery forceps (haemostat) |
medium sized, with a serrated tip and a catch; used to hold bleeding vessels and compress them in order to make them stop bleeding and also to hold or crush structures. |
•Fixation forceps |
has a few teeth at the tip; for holding structures and restricting their movement or to hold small swabs |
•Plain dissecting forceps |
blunt untoothed with a serrated tip; for holding structures and restricting their movement or to hold small swabs |
•Iris forceps |
fine tipped (straight or otherwise) with small teeth; to hold the iris tissue during procedures |
•Elschnig's intracapsular forceps |
fine untoothed forceps for holding tissue, swabs, sutures, etc; removing things like clots, capsule fragments, lens, etc; used in cataract surgery |
•Arruga's intracapsular forceps |
fine untoothed forceps holding tissue, swabs, sutures, etc; removing things like clots, capsule fragments, lens, etc; used in cataract surgery |
•Colibri forceps |
fine toothed forceps for holding flaps of cornea or sclera and rarely the iris |
•Saint Martin's forceps |
holding flaps of cornea or sclera and rarely the iris |
•Superior rectus holding forceps |
specially curved (to fit into the orbit of the eye) forceps for catching hold of the muscle bellies of the intraorbital muscles and sutures |
•Suture tier forceps |
fine limbed untoothed forceps to hold fine sutures or hairs |
•Capsulotomy forceps |
to tear the anterior capsule of the lens during cataract surgery |
•Disc holding forceps |
used in glaucoma surgery (obsolete) |
•Capsulorhexis forceps |
fine sharp-tipped untoothed forceps for doing a continuous curvilinear incision and removal of the anterior capsule of the lens ("continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis - ccc") |
•MacPherson's forceps |
fine sharp-tipped untoothed forceps with an angulation for holding parts of the lens, the intraocular lens, 10-0 (very fine) sutures, etc |
•Chalazion forceps (clamp) |
self-retaining with discoid ends; used to hold and prevent a chalazion from bleeding during its surgery |
•Epilation forceps (Cilia forceps) |
stout flat-ended blunt forceps with a thickened end to remove eyelashes |
•Entropion forceps |
self-retaining with big discoid ends used to hold and prevent an entropion from bleeding during its surgery |
Chalazion scoop |
to remove the granulation tissue from a chalazion during surgery |
Entropion clamp |
right and left varieties exist; large clamp with two limbs; self-retaining with big discoid ends used to hold and prevent an entropion from bleeding during its surgery |
Nettleship's punctum dilator |
to dilate the lacrimal punctum of the lacrimal apparatus of the eye for syringing or operations |
Cystitome |
a 26 gauge needle bent twice used for incising the anterior capsule of the lens in lens extraction |
Wire vectis |
a loop of wire attached to a stack used to extract cataract affected lenses |
Irrigating vectis |
a small hollow instrument with a used to introduce fluid into the anterior chamber to raise its pressure to aid cataract extraction [2] |
Canula |
used to carry fluid |
•Irrigation-aspiration two-way canula |
effectively two small canulae fitted together, one to introduce fluid and the other to extract the cortical materials, blood, etc. in eye operations |
•Lacrimal canula |
small curved canula the size of a syringe needle used to introduce fluids or drugs into the nasolacrimal passage to test its patency or during surgery (dacrocystography, dacrocystectomy, dacryocystorhinostomy(DCR), etc. |
Lang's lacrimal dissector with scoop |
for blunt dissections and cleaning during operations like dacryocystorhinostomy |
Rougine |
dissection of lacrimal sac |
Retractor |
to pull and hold overlying tissue out of the operating field |
•Muller's self retaining adjustable haemostatic retractor |
-do-; self retaining haemostatic |
•Cat's paw retractor |
-do- |
•Desmarre's lid retractor |
-do-; specially for noncooperative patients and to see the fornices (see eye (anatomy)) |
Bone punch |
to fracture pieces from a thin bone in facial surgery and during operations like dacryocystorhinostomy |
Evisceration spoon or scoop |
removing all the contents of the eyeball during evisceration (complete removal of all structures within the eye in diseases like endophthalmitis |
Lid plate |
flat large instrument that has a groove and is placed between the lid and globe of the eye to provide a solid support for eyelid surgery |
Hammer, chisel and bone gouge |
bone cutting and shaping |
Bowmen's discission needle |
microsurgery of the lens capsule[3] |
Knives |
to cut structures |
•Surgical scalpel with small blades |
general purpose instrument |
•von Graefe's cataract knife |
cutting out of the anterior chamber from the inside through the limbus |
•Tookes' knife (Sclero-corneal splitter) |
making sclerocorneal tunnels in "small incision cataract surgery (SICS)" and keratoplasty |
•Crescent knife (Sclero-corneal splitter) |
making sclerocorneal tunnels in "small incision cataract surgery" |
•Angular keratome |
making sclerocorneal tunnels in "small incision cataract surgery"; larger one used to increase the size of the incision |
•Side-port blade |
making sclerocorneal "side port" (a secondary tunnel) tunnels in "small incision cataract surgery" |
•Beer's knife |
incise the conjunctiva or the eyelid skin |
•Keratotome |
small triangular blade with two sharp edges used to incise the limbus (sclerocorneal junction) |
•Zeigler's knife |
very tiny knife for intaoccular maneuvers specially when space is less |
Scissors |
- |
•Conjunctival sac scissors |
flat small curved scissors to cut the conjunctive |
•Corneal spring scissors |
medium spring-open used to cut the external side of the the cornea, fine sutures; iris, etc. |
•de' Wecker's iris scissors |
small slender spring-open scissors for intraoccular maneuvers (iris and deeper and more delicate structures); has two wings to operate it and one sharp and one blunt blade. |
•Vannas' scissors |
small slender spring-open scissors for intraoccular maneuvers (iris and deeper and more delicate structures); has two wings to operate it and one sharp and one blunt blade. |
•Enucleation scissors |
thick scissors used to cut the optic nerve in enucleation operation |
Bowman's lacrimal probe |
probing the nasolacrimal duct |
Lens expressor |
used to force out the lens in extracapsular or intracapsular cataract extraction |
McNamar's spoon |
used to force out the lens in intracapsular cataract extraction |
Iris repositor |
two limbed instrument used to remove the iris during posterior chamber maneuvers |
Sinsky's hook intraocular lens dialler |
angulated round hook with a handle used in insertion of an intraocular lens |
Strabismus hook |
muscle hook or squint hook; sharp tip or knobbed tip; used in squint surgery |
Foreign body spud and needle |
Spud to remove superficial and needle for the deep foreign bodies in the eye |
Elliot's trephine with handle |
used in corneal donation (eye donation) to cut out the cornea in a circular fashion |
Castroveijo's calipers |
various measurements are taken |
Castroveijo's corneal trephine |
used in corneal donation (eye donation) to cut out the cornea in a circular fashion |
Pin-hole |
testing visual acuity |
Red green goggles |
(red - right side & green - left side) used in Worth 4 dot test, diplopia testing |
Prisms |
to diagnose squints; in other instruments; refractive correction; etc. |
Placido's disc |
to assess the condition of the corneal surface |
Retinoscope |
objective determination of refractive error and for looking inside the eye |
Loupe |
used ot search for magnified examination of the anterior segment of the eye (uniocular or binocular) |
Jackson's cross cylinder |
used to check the power and axis of a cylindrical lens |
Maddox rod |
used to test for latent squint and retinal function |
Refraction box |
has lenses of different powers for refraction testing |
Slit lamp bimicroscope |
used for examining the anteriorly placed structures the eye; vide link |
Charts for vision |
- |
•Distant vision |
to determine visual acuity of distant vision |
••Snellen's distant vision chart |
-do-; for those who can read in English |
••Regional language charts |
-do-; for those who can read in their local language |
••E Chart |
-do-; for those who can not read |
••Landolt's broken ring chart |
-do-; for those who can not read |
••Toys pr picture chart |
-do-; for children |
•Near vision |
-do-; to determine visual acuity of near vision |
••Jager's chart |
-do- |
••Printer's types of N series |
-do- |
••Snellen's near chart (1/17th reduction of distant chart) |
-do-; standard chart of alphabets; vide link |
•Colour vision: |
to test colour vision |
••Ishihara's chart |
to determine the type of colour blondness |
Stenopaeic slit |
detection of axis of the cylindrical (astigmatism) power of the eye; glaucoma testing |
Implants |
- |
•Intraocular lens |
prosthetic lenses implanted after lens (anatomy) removal |
•Artificial eyes |
as non-functional cosmetic implants into the eye socket |
Blade breaker |
to break disposable blade after use to prevent reuse |
Thermo-cautery |
to coagulate blood vessels and prevent haemorrhage |
Cryoprobe |
to freeze and extract the lens |
Yttrium aluminium garnet laser (YAG laser) |
to correct posterior capsular opacification (specially after removal of a cataract, if required), peripheral iridotomy, retinal surgery, laser-assisted sub-epithelial keratectomy (LASEK)[4] etc. |
Electrolysis |
used for permanent hair removal |
Electrocautery |
for electrosurgery |
Phacoemulsification |
used for extraction of a cataract affected lens after emulsifying it using an high frequency (energy) ultrasound probe [5] |