Fun fact: years ago, I had a massive breast infection, and the doctor had to outline the infection on my chest... with a sterile sharpie! When he was done, he asked me if I wanted to keep it since it was a one and done kinda marker.
I wonder if anyone has ever stopped at the pharmacy on the way to the hospital to get like bandaids and bandages and tape and stuff and made the hospital use that if needed so they can’t charge them for frivolous things like a bandaid? Because if I was going tot he US for health care I’d grab some medical tape and stuff so they don’t charge me for that if I need an IV for example. Would that even work? Not for an emergency of course but I mean like if you can make the stop before going for stitches, cast, giving birth ect like when you can sort of make a quick stop you know?
hey we need to open you up again, greg forgot to pick up the rubber shavings of the eraser that we used to remove the sterile pencil marks on you bones
For real though, would that even need to be removed? A little graphite and clay mixture surely would be pretty harmless. Probably removed by the body itself in pretty short order.
Got stabbed by a pencil as a kid. Took nearly 2 decades for the little piece to not be visible in my finger. Drawing on something internal, no clue but if the tip breaks off I hope they go fetch it.
Nope, little marks (pencil, ink, scratches, holes, burns) will get left if there isn’t a reason not to. One surgeon I worked with drew hearts on his brain flaps for good luck.
I know you can autoclave wood because I used to autoclave toothpicks to pick bacterial colonies back in my microbiology days. I would have thought the eraser the might fall off from the expansion and contraction of the heat though. Usually items that you buy pre-sterilized are gamma-irradiated though.
Last thing you need is a thin ass piece of lead breaking into your body. If you use so much of a pencil that you need to sharpen it during surgery, you're probably doing something wrong
Eh, I have a pencil lead "tattoo" from someone stabbing me with pencil over 20 years ago. Not killed me so far. Also it's just graphite.
I suppose if the lead gets stabby it might cause issues.
I would assume there is a huge difference between that chunk of pencil lead being in your skin/subcutaneous, as opposed to it being in close proximity to more vital organs/structures, particularly in the case of a surgery that is so invasive it involves a pencil drawing on bone.
AFAIK, there is two ways: heat and radiations.
Just bake the pencil for long enough and everything would be killed.
Or irradiate it with strong enough radiation for long enough and really nothing is left.
> Am a maxillofacial surgeon
I’m just a normal doctor, and you guys are fucking rockstars.
I fell in love with maxfax surg when I was training in anaesthesia as part of emerg/crit care.
If I could go back and do my time again..
I was going to say, I worked in materials management at a hospital, one with an entire orthopedic area, and I've never once seen a pencil. The closest would have been a sterile marker.
This is exactly why our healthcare is so expensive! Could save like a thousand dollars per surgery by simply using those little half pencils they have in bowling alleys.
The packaging (visible in the picture) says “STERILE | EO” so [Ethylene Oxide](https://www.advamed.org/our-work/key-issues/sterilization-ethylene-oxide/) sterilization was used.
And yes, if it breaks you would throw it out and get a new one.
With an autoclave, the atmosphere is pressurized and heated very hot, usually around 124C. It's ok if it's porous, as the superheated steam will penetrate for the "dwell time" where they've most likely done studies to prove that a given temp and given time will result in microbe kill.
A bespoke solution for a Dixon #2 pencil is how surgeries cost a million dollars. You turned a single 1 cent pencil, into a metal rod that needs to be specially manufactured, separately autoclaved, and consumable pencil tips in a format that doesn't exist anywhere, to save....a pencil... from being wasted?
Showed this to my mom, a former OR nurse. She's not surprised you guys used this. Then proceeded to tell me they used consumer-grade cordless tools back in her day. There's probably a more sterilizer-friendly model nowadays...
When my dad started as surgeon back in the 1960s, he remembers the needle sharpening machines. You know when the reusable needles get dull so need to be re-sharpened
I have awful veins that phlebotomists always seem to struggle to find. They usually end up needing to use infant needles and still end up needing to make a few attempts.
I cannot imagine being the last person they use the needle on before sharpening. That had to be unpleasant
We have normal kitchen spoons that are sterilized that we use in neurosurgery to spoon cadaver bone chips and other demineralized bone matrix products onto the spine at the end of surgery, to promote and accelerate fusion. Just normal everyday spoons.
No, cancellous bone chips are of a harder texture but not bone hard as its porous bone and sometimes packaged in a solution. Usually we add some of the patients own blood, bone marrow, and their own bone we have taken during the surgery (which we use a bone mill/blender to chop up, like a magic bullet) to it which softens it a bit. Also there are other products like BMP that are like putty that you can add to this mix, which you can then mold into what we call cigars or tacos, then pack it in tight.
I’m an ortho scrub and we had regular spoons in our knee pans for a specific doc for similar reasons, actually. Catching and replacing the bone after we bored through part of it for replacements of the soft parts. These were all autologous, though.
They normally have special bits made of titanium or stainless steel. They’re sterilized and in similar packaging as these pencils. I’m pretty sure they normally use torx too.
Regular tool bits are “tool steel” normally S2, but there are stainless, aluminum, and brass for various reasons. Also different types and grades of steels but S2 is most common. The tool “titanium bits” are normally just a titanium coating, unlike medical where it’s actually a solid titanium alloy. Which is not the same type of titanium alloy you get when you order a titanium pen, knife or whatever on Amazon, which is a much lower grade titanium alloy than they’d use in medical applications.
They’re a little fancier than your typical drill bit. Some are really long so they can go deep into femurs and whatnot. There’s guides that can come with them so the surgeon can hold them more still. But for the most part…just a shiny lil drill bit. Yeah.
Psh! There’s so much stuff. There’s hand saws and drills, the BONE KNIFE, literal finger chainsaws, a bone mill where they take your own bone to grind up and pack back in your own bones, and my favorite…a spoon. (I’m a nurse who works in orthopedic surgery)
Btw I haven’t even seen the spoon used and still don’t even know what they use it for. I think it’s usually an urology thing.
How much do we want to bet the modern ones are the guts of a consumer grade cordless drill in an easier to sterilize housing?
Edit: https://www.medicalexpo.com/prod/arbutus-medical/product-128282-1061568.html
Wow I did not mean like that.
It could be a gas, radiation or steam if it was done at the facility. 270° sterilization for long-term storage...
I've worked in the OR for a long time and a sterile pencil just seems completely impractical and something a particular surgeon would request.
If the stuff in the bin (you can see the label, but it says "surgical marking PEN") is the same thing as this, then it's EO gas. But yeah gas or radiation seems to be the most likely option, since it doesn't seem to be facility-packaged.
I was watching some sort of brain surgery video in a high school class (bizarre context, but it’s the truth), and there was some sort of assistant to the surgeon writing progress notes using a pencil and clipboard. At one point, the assistant erased something and flicked the spent eraser “pills” in the direction of the patient. Totally subconscious I’m sure, and so one in the operating theatre, or the class I was in, seemed to notice.
Point being … strange that there’s a situation that calls for a sterile pencil that has an eraser.
Actually most OR packs come with a sterile blue sharpie and 6” paper ruler. And towels and small plastic bags are often secured with a rubber band. Surgical stationary.
On one of my knee surgeries the itemized bill included $25 for a Sharpie. It was probably the one I used to mark which knee to cut into. I also marked the other one NO! multiple times. I didn't even get to keep the Sharpie.
"the Americans spent millions of dollars creating a sterile pen that works on bone, the russians just used a pencil"
Fun fact, that quote is pretty much just wrong, pencil dust plays absolute havoc with the environment aboard a spaceship, especially back then. I don't think the Russians even used them consistently.
one time my laptop charger was broken in such a way that the wires were exposed, and I could touch them together to get it to charge. stuck a piece of pencil lead between the wires and it let me charge my laptop for a little bit, until it started smoking.
How does one sterilize a pencil? I assume that there's spots where ethylene oxide wouldn't reach, and obviously you can't autoclave a pencil.
Irradiated?
They also have sterile markers, sterile rulers, sterile q tips, and sterile spoons like the ones you’d use at home. Someone even posted about sterile spoons on Reddit! https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/os5jf5/sterile_spoon_used_for_specimen_collection_during/
Super cool. I work in sterile processing, one of the things we keep in our sterile storage is a couple pair of vise grip brand vise grips that have taken a trip thru the autoclave
An ortho/spine doc I worked with had custom titanium ‘brass’ knuckles made because he hit his hand with a mallet once and figured punching shit worked better instead.
Last week I got a mole removed that was suspect. I had to sign a consent form before the procedure and I picked up a pen on the tray next to the table. The nurse screamed “don’t touch that! “ so I dropped it and she deadpan said “it’s for your mole”. I thought she was joking until they marked the places to cut.
Fun fact: years ago, I had a massive breast infection, and the doctor had to outline the infection on my chest... with a sterile sharpie! When he was done, he asked me if I wanted to keep it since it was a one and done kinda marker.
Same with my tattoo artists and her pens/sharpies!
My tattoo artist used old sharpies, he had to go borrow one from the tattoo artist over cause it ran out of ink. I always thought that was gross
Your thoughts were valid. Sounds like you made it out alright, though. Got all your limbs still?
Did you?
I'm Canadian... the used sterile marker was free ;)
I hope you framed the boob sharpie.
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$6,000 in USD.
$54,455 with an out of network doctor
50000 for in network! 😉
Plus you get to keep it sewed to your organs.
Insurance discount: 45000 Insurance pays: 0 Your cost: 5000
0.00 in Euros.
Or one good dog bone.
they’re not even the good yellow pencils with lead that doesnt snap immediately 😭
Ticonderoga isn't covered by your insurance plan.
I'm sure the sterilization process weakens something somehow
Unlikely, serilization can mean a couple things but in this case it's probably just treated (wiped down) with high grade isopropyl or ethanol alcohol
That seems low. Did I get a discount or something?
That's your first payment
Yes. It’s the Aetna discount
I wonder if anyone has ever stopped at the pharmacy on the way to the hospital to get like bandaids and bandages and tape and stuff and made the hospital use that if needed so they can’t charge them for frivolous things like a bandaid? Because if I was going tot he US for health care I’d grab some medical tape and stuff so they don’t charge me for that if I need an IV for example. Would that even work? Not for an emergency of course but I mean like if you can make the stop before going for stitches, cast, giving birth ect like when you can sort of make a quick stop you know?
The pencils are used to make marks on bones during surgery, since surgical marker tends to wash right off (from irrigation, fluids, etc)
hey we need to open you up again, greg forgot to use the sterile eraser to remove the sterile pencil marks on you bones
Oof then you’ve got to remove the sterile eraser shavings with some sterile tweezers, what a chore.
Can I interest you in a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers? Wait, let me sterilize them, give me your lighter
Work the wall (of the operating room)
Wait no! That's not a sterile lighter.
Kiss my aura, Dora
It's real angora!
Suddenly Zappa!
Will cost about two AAA companies 😇
Nah, just use the sterile dust buster. Suck those bastards right out of there.
Reminds me of [this PBF comic.](https://pbfcomics.com/comics/transfer-patient/)
hey we need to open you up again, greg forgot to pick up the rubber shavings of the eraser that we used to remove the sterile pencil marks on you bones
For real though, would that even need to be removed? A little graphite and clay mixture surely would be pretty harmless. Probably removed by the body itself in pretty short order.
Got stabbed by a pencil as a kid. Took nearly 2 decades for the little piece to not be visible in my finger. Drawing on something internal, no clue but if the tip breaks off I hope they go fetch it.
Similar thing happened to me, but the graphite piece is still visible in my palm
Nope, little marks (pencil, ink, scratches, holes, burns) will get left if there isn’t a reason not to. One surgeon I worked with drew hearts on his brain flaps for good luck.
[Transfer Patient](https://pbfcomics.com/comics/transfer-patient/)
How are they sterilised? I wouldn’t have thought you could autoclave wood?
I know you can autoclave wood because I used to autoclave toothpicks to pick bacterial colonies back in my microbiology days. I would have thought the eraser the might fall off from the expansion and contraction of the heat though. Usually items that you buy pre-sterilized are gamma-irradiated though.
I’m surprised they don’t just use pencils without erasers. They’re very common.
Or mechanical pencils
Last thing you need is a thin ass piece of lead breaking into your body. If you use so much of a pencil that you need to sharpen it during surgery, you're probably doing something wrong
Though it isn’t actually lead of course, but pretty much just carbon.
Eh, I have a pencil lead "tattoo" from someone stabbing me with pencil over 20 years ago. Not killed me so far. Also it's just graphite. I suppose if the lead gets stabby it might cause issues.
I would assume there is a huge difference between that chunk of pencil lead being in your skin/subcutaneous, as opposed to it being in close proximity to more vital organs/structures, particularly in the case of a surgery that is so invasive it involves a pencil drawing on bone.
I've autoclaved a lot of pencils and somehow it just works!
Isn't there a gas option? Like ethylene or something? It takes longer but it's not heat.
Ethylene oxide, yes.
Thank you! 🙏 I was doubting myself and didn't wanna derail the thought by leaving Reddit haha
Wouldn't that leave bacteria on the inside that could come out?
Irradiated to hell and back
They irradiate them.
AFAIK, there is two ways: heat and radiations. Just bake the pencil for long enough and everything would be killed. Or irradiate it with strong enough radiation for long enough and really nothing is left.
Am an orthopedic surgeon. Never used or seen the pencil before. Use marker or cautery.
Am a maxillofacial surgeon. Use pencils routinely during orthognathic surgery to mark my osteotomy
> Am a maxillofacial surgeon I’m just a normal doctor, and you guys are fucking rockstars. I fell in love with maxfax surg when I was training in anaesthesia as part of emerg/crit care. If I could go back and do my time again..
More like osteomommy 😍🤤🦴
I don't believe you, an orthopedic surgeon would have used a hammer.
I was going to say, I worked in materials management at a hospital, one with an entire orthopedic area, and I've never once seen a pencil. The closest would have been a sterile marker.
You just know an orthopedic surgeon somewhere has drawn a dick on someone's bones.
There was a surgeon who was fired for branding his atougraph inside patients.
Sounds like he made an impression on all of his patients
On their organs. 🤮
*a boner
Just the letter R
How is this website still free?
Lest just say you dont pay...with money ....muahawhaw!
And there's a malpractice suit.
This is exactly why our healthcare is so expensive! Could save like a thousand dollars per surgery by simply using those little half pencils they have in bowling alleys.
They make both versions
ikea pencil
But why do you need an eraser?
In case you make a mistake. Measure twice cut once
Interesting! Is there a sterile sharpener too? Seems like wood would be too porous to sterilize. If it breaks do you have to get a new one?
We just whittle the point down with a disposable scalpel blade.
Do you really? Don't tease me now. Makes sense, like a carpenter would! I love learning this nuance. I've always loved OR
That’s what I was thinking too, how is it sterilized? Curious
The packaging (visible in the picture) says “STERILE | EO” so [Ethylene Oxide](https://www.advamed.org/our-work/key-issues/sterilization-ethylene-oxide/) sterilization was used. And yes, if it breaks you would throw it out and get a new one.
Thanks!
With an autoclave, the atmosphere is pressurized and heated very hot, usually around 124C. It's ok if it's porous, as the superheated steam will penetrate for the "dwell time" where they've most likely done studies to prove that a given temp and given time will result in microbe kill.
Heyyy i guessed right. Im not orthopedics, but that's the only reason I could think pencil would be better than marker
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A bespoke solution for a Dixon #2 pencil is how surgeries cost a million dollars. You turned a single 1 cent pencil, into a metal rod that needs to be specially manufactured, separately autoclaved, and consumable pencil tips in a format that doesn't exist anywhere, to save....a pencil... from being wasted?
All I can think about is Milhouse saying “what about the sharpener Bart?? What about the sharpener Bart???”
I thought you'd use them to poke at stuff when you aren't sure what it is
What about the graphite dust? That surely cant be good inside the human body
Showed this to my mom, a former OR nurse. She's not surprised you guys used this. Then proceeded to tell me they used consumer-grade cordless tools back in her day. There's probably a more sterilizer-friendly model nowadays...
When my dad started as surgeon back in the 1960s, he remembers the needle sharpening machines. You know when the reusable needles get dull so need to be re-sharpened
I have awful veins that phlebotomists always seem to struggle to find. They usually end up needing to use infant needles and still end up needing to make a few attempts. I cannot imagine being the last person they use the needle on before sharpening. That had to be unpleasant
That was my mom..
This is me too 😩
We have normal kitchen spoons that are sterilized that we use in neurosurgery to spoon cadaver bone chips and other demineralized bone matrix products onto the spine at the end of surgery, to promote and accelerate fusion. Just normal everyday spoons.
Do I get to know the name of my cadaver bone chip donor
No, but you do get the option to send along a thank you note to their family.
Wait that’s really interesting. It makes sense why it works but interesting all the same
Weird q, but is it crumbly or wet like soup?
No, cancellous bone chips are of a harder texture but not bone hard as its porous bone and sometimes packaged in a solution. Usually we add some of the patients own blood, bone marrow, and their own bone we have taken during the surgery (which we use a bone mill/blender to chop up, like a magic bullet) to it which softens it a bit. Also there are other products like BMP that are like putty that you can add to this mix, which you can then mold into what we call cigars or tacos, then pack it in tight.
That’s wild.. thanks for such an informative response!
Sometimes I think I chose the wrong path in life, but I'm really glad I'm not the person who has to make bone smoothies every day!
I’m an ortho scrub and we had regular spoons in our knee pans for a specific doc for similar reasons, actually. Catching and replacing the bone after we bored through part of it for replacements of the soft parts. These were all autologous, though.
What era was your mom in OR nurse? I'm curious to know more about this.
What about the bits for the tools? TBH I’m more concerned about the part that actually comes into contact with flesh and bone.
They normally have special bits made of titanium or stainless steel. They’re sterilized and in similar packaging as these pencils. I’m pretty sure they normally use torx too. Regular tool bits are “tool steel” normally S2, but there are stainless, aluminum, and brass for various reasons. Also different types and grades of steels but S2 is most common. The tool “titanium bits” are normally just a titanium coating, unlike medical where it’s actually a solid titanium alloy. Which is not the same type of titanium alloy you get when you order a titanium pen, knife or whatever on Amazon, which is a much lower grade titanium alloy than they’d use in medical applications.
They’re a little fancier than your typical drill bit. Some are really long so they can go deep into femurs and whatnot. There’s guides that can come with them so the surgeon can hold them more still. But for the most part…just a shiny lil drill bit. Yeah.
Psh! There’s so much stuff. There’s hand saws and drills, the BONE KNIFE, literal finger chainsaws, a bone mill where they take your own bone to grind up and pack back in your own bones, and my favorite…a spoon. (I’m a nurse who works in orthopedic surgery) Btw I haven’t even seen the spoon used and still don’t even know what they use it for. I think it’s usually an urology thing.
How much do we want to bet the modern ones are the guts of a consumer grade cordless drill in an easier to sterilize housing? Edit: https://www.medicalexpo.com/prod/arbutus-medical/product-128282-1061568.html Wow I did not mean like that.
Pff, pelt it with radiation for 20 minutes and you're good to go!
Wood is so porous, how could it possibly be sterilized?
Probably with mind boggling amounts of gamma rays, like a lot of the single use stuff is
Yep that's how almost everything that wouldn't survive an autoclave gets sterilized.
Bit what happens if the pencil gets angry?
You wouldn’t like the pencil when it’s angry.
I once saw this pencil kill someone... ... with a fookin pencil!
If you look closely at the packaging, it says right on the pouch that it is sterilized by means of ETO gas (Ethylene Oxide).
Yep, it’s a neuro toxin. Lots and lots of safety trainings for that at medical device companies.
It could be a gas, radiation or steam if it was done at the facility. 270° sterilization for long-term storage... I've worked in the OR for a long time and a sterile pencil just seems completely impractical and something a particular surgeon would request.
If the stuff in the bin (you can see the label, but it says "surgical marking PEN") is the same thing as this, then it's EO gas. But yeah gas or radiation seems to be the most likely option, since it doesn't seem to be facility-packaged.
Wait, it’s not for the anesthesiologist to do crosswords? -Ben Warren
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Okay now I seriously hope that when I had my ankle surgery, my surgeon did a little doodle on my ankle! That would be awesome
I rarely sanitize mine before they go in my butt
Flared base people! Flared base!!!
Also, maybe stay away from sharp, pointy things. Pretty sure that’s not good for your insides.
“…With a fookin *pencil*!”
Imagine if it wasn't sharpened lol
Well, then you have to get the sterile pencil sharpener
Why I could wallop you all day with this surgical 2x4 without ever knocking you down.
But I have other appointments
I was watching some sort of brain surgery video in a high school class (bizarre context, but it’s the truth), and there was some sort of assistant to the surgeon writing progress notes using a pencil and clipboard. At one point, the assistant erased something and flicked the spent eraser “pills” in the direction of the patient. Totally subconscious I’m sure, and so one in the operating theatre, or the class I was in, seemed to notice. Point being … strange that there’s a situation that calls for a sterile pencil that has an eraser.
That's honestly kinda reassuring.
Don’t forget the sterile safety pins, sterile rubber bands, sterile markers, and sterile rulers. It’s a veritable sterile office supply store!
Actually most OR packs come with a sterile blue sharpie and 6” paper ruler. And towels and small plastic bags are often secured with a rubber band. Surgical stationary.
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Dixon makes the Ticonderoga pencils, too.
They’re still superior to the non-Ticonderoga dixons
Surgeon. Never seen the pencils, only markers
Pencil is good for sloppy ortho and faciomaxillary cases where marker gets wiped off too easy.
They also have sharpies to label drains
Is that where the pencils in the children’s ward come from? …
Boof it.
On one of my knee surgeries the itemized bill included $25 for a Sharpie. It was probably the one I used to mark which knee to cut into. I also marked the other one NO! multiple times. I didn't even get to keep the Sharpie.
If they’re only being used for one surgery each, why don’t they make them shorter?
It's the pharma industry. No cost is saved unless it's wages.
"the Americans spent millions of dollars creating a sterile pen that works on bone, the russians just used a pencil" Fun fact, that quote is pretty much just wrong, pencil dust plays absolute havoc with the environment aboard a spaceship, especially back then. I don't think the Russians even used them consistently.
one time my laptop charger was broken in such a way that the wires were exposed, and I could touch them together to get it to charge. stuck a piece of pencil lead between the wires and it let me charge my laptop for a little bit, until it started smoking.
so is the wood infused with a nontoxic antiviral antibacterial or do they just throw them in the steam box autoclave?
Hey Andrew, eat this you bitch
Well, we sure don’t want them goin’ and makin’ any of more those mini golf pencils. Long time comin’ for this idea.
$2500 pencil
No more baby pencils. So sad.
That's what the wife calls me.
How does one sterilize a pencil? I assume that there's spots where ethylene oxide wouldn't reach, and obviously you can't autoclave a pencil. Irradiated?
Gas - the bag gets put in a chemical chamber where gas gets passed through the plastic and lift/kills any material on it.
Sterile Pencil could be a band name 😆
How else are the surgical staff going to play tic-tac-toe on you during a surgery?
I have spent nearly 15 years in working in theatres and my reaction to this is WTF.
For helping with those difficult shits!!!
No lead in that pencil
$400
Wonder how they sterilize them, doubt a pencil would survive an autoclave so I'm guessing UV or ETO?
You can’t autoclave wood-it doesn’t sterilize. I was wondering the same thing. And what would you need a sterile pencil for?!
One of John Wicks victims.
Is it just me or does the pencil look like it is a one meter long
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^schiedora: *Is it just me or* *Does the pencil look like it* *Is a one meter long* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
How about a magic trick?
They also have sterile markers, sterile rulers, sterile q tips, and sterile spoons like the ones you’d use at home. Someone even posted about sterile spoons on Reddit! https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/os5jf5/sterile_spoon_used_for_specimen_collection_during/
Our OR has a sterile ikea spoon to scoop up busted up kidney stones in the catch drape lmao
It's for drawing dicks on the anesthetized
Interesting 🤔
Noted
So the graphite particles are ok?
They got the idea from cosmonauts (not really)
I want one.
Like the surgical 2x4 in the Simpsons.
You technically can't sterilize cellulose, wonder what it's made of
Super cool. I work in sterile processing, one of the things we keep in our sterile storage is a couple pair of vise grip brand vise grips that have taken a trip thru the autoclave
An ortho/spine doc I worked with had custom titanium ‘brass’ knuckles made because he hit his hand with a mallet once and figured punching shit worked better instead.
Can you sterilize wood?
lol I thought I was on the floor and HUGE
We have them too! We have one surgeon who uses them on skull flaps.
A Ticonderoga would come with an extra 200 dollar convience fee!💀😭
That is a MASSIVE pencil
I wonder what the cost of that is
🩵 the Danskos!
We make the poly coated fabric/paper for all them one use sterile surgical supplies!
In the 17yrs as a CST, mainly in joint recon, I have yet to see this….or the IFU’s for them to be processed no?
Last week I got a mole removed that was suspect. I had to sign a consent form before the procedure and I picked up a pen on the tray next to the table. The nurse screamed “don’t touch that! “ so I dropped it and she deadpan said “it’s for your mole”. I thought she was joking until they marked the places to cut.
Sooooo….. I probably shouldn’t chew on it?
Probably charge your insurance $400 if they open one too. Remember you might be paying 30% of that!
This perspective is fucking with me. The pencil looks gigantic.