Surgical Instruments Used in Tubal Ligation

Tubal ligation is a procedure performed on women who have decided not to have anymore children, or have a condition which pregnancy would make worse. It can be performed a number of ways, but similar instruments are used for each procedure.

Laparoscope

• Tubal ligations are most often performed with a laparoscope, an instrument which allows the surgeon to perform the procedure through small incisions in the abdomen. The laparoscope looks like a small telescope attached to a flexible tube.

Hemostats

• Hemostats are clamps that look similar to scissors and have a locking device on the handle. They are used to clamp the fallopian tube and seperate the oviduct from surrounding tissue. They are also used to control bleeding by keeping the area clamped until it can be sutured.

Silastic Ring Applicator

• This device pulls the fallopian tube into the applicator with small tongs, where a falope ring (a band that binds the tube) is then slipped onto the tube. The instrument then releases the tube.

Babcock Clamp

• This clamp is used when the ligation performed consists of a removal of part of the fallopian tube. The babcock clamp grasps the mid portion of the tube and holds it while the tube is sutured on either side of the clamp, then the section of the tube inside the clamp is excised and removed.

Cauterizing instrument

• This needle-like device uses electrocoagulation, which cuts and coagulates the tissue simultaneously, destroying the fallopian tube.