Shaver (arthroscopy)
The shaver is a medical instrument used to remove fine soft tissue or cartilage. It is mainly used in arthroscopy .
A shaver essentially consists of a stainless steel tube with a window at the end. A moveable knife is mounted in this window. An electric motor in the handle operated by a pedal or finger switch allows the knife to rotate left or right. A pendular movement is also possible.
Most surgeons use the pendulum drive. The simple rotation is useful when working towards the camera (in the sense of a milling machine); however, this often leaves the tissue structure behind, which has to be removed in a second operation. The removed chips and tissue residues are suctioned off through the inner channel. Work breaks to rinse the joint are therefore not necessary. Shavers must always be used under view, otherwise they can quickly work their way through intact cartilage or injure a cruciate ligament.
Shavers are often used to ablate synovial villi because the suction sucks the villi into the tube and then can be cut off smoothly. They are also very well suited for “tidying up” in order to create clarity in the case of synovial hyperplasia and thus make safe work on delicate areas possible in the first place.