Cottle cartilage crusher
A hinged, double-plate metal instrument with grooved or perforated surfaces that, when closed, crushes and fragments small pieces of autologous cartilage without fully severing it.
How it is used
Used in rhinoplasty and septorhinoplasty to morselize septal or conchal cartilage grafts, making them more pliable and easier to shape to fill irregularities or smooth dorsal transitions, reducing the risk of visible contour edges.
Clinical tip
The more aggressively the graft is crushed, the more pliable it becomes but the lower its chondrocyte viability; the least force needed to achieve the desired shape should be used.
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.