Medical instruments are specially designed tools and devices for performing various medical procedures and check-ups. Highly specialized tools exist for carrying surgeries, operations, and the modifying of biological tissues. Many different kinds of medical instruments and tools have been invented over thousands of years.

Archeological digs in Egypt have uncovered tools that are believed to have been used for certain types of brain surgery in the B.C. era. Some medical instruments are designed for general practitioner use, while others are designed specific procedures and body parts. The names of many of these instruments are straightforward and describe what they are used for like ‘scalpel’ and a tracheotome, which is used while performing a tracheotomy. Others have been named after their inventors like the Kocher forceps.

The term medical instrument is somewhat relaxed seeing that they can have to do with surgeries, check-ups and routine procedures. These tools are providing basic assistance to doctors. The affect that these medical instruments can have on humans is solely physical, which is opposite the purpose of pharmaceuticals or drugs. These instruments include a wide array that varies in complexity, purpose and material used to manufacture them. The current global market for sales of such devices is in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration or commonly referred to as the FDA, medical instruments are: “devices or instruments, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent, or other similar or related article, including any component, part, or accessory, intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals, or intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes.”

Medical instruments have evolved from glass scalpels and wooden handles to the expensive and complex x-ray and CT scan machine we see today. It has been said that a doctor from ancient Egypt would be able to pick up most modern medical instruments and use them effectively for their desired purposes. The advancement of medical technologies is one of the most important aspects of modern day society. As earth’s population reaches record numbers and the US baby boomers start getting older we will need more advanced and effective medical instruments than ever before.