Cottle elevator
A double-ended instrument with a wide, robust blade, often graduated in millimeters at one end to measure the graft, and a blunt end at the other for dissection.
How it is used
Used in septoplasty to elevate the mucoperichondrium and mucoperiosteum along the full length of the nasal septum, creating the subperichondrial tunnel where the deformity will be addressed, and to measure cartilage before resection or grafting.
Clinical tip
Distinguished from the already-catalogued Freer elevator by its wider, more robust blade (often marked with measurement gradations), designed for wide tunnels along the entire septum; the finer Freer elevator is used more generally across ENT, including ear surgery.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-25.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.