osteotome

[os-tee-uh-tohm]

noun

Surgery.

1. a double-beveled chisel-like instrument for cutting or dividing bone.

osteotome

/ ˈɒstɪəˌtəʊm /

noun

1. a surgical instrument for cutting bone, usually a special chisel

Word History and Origins

Origin of osteotome¹

First recorded in 1835–45; New Latin osteotomus; osteo-, -tome

Example Sentences

They operated with a tiny chisel-like instrument called an osteotome in addition to a set of instruments called curettes, "which look like little sharp ice cream scoops," said Stewart.

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They use an osteotome and mallet, resembling a chisel and a hammer, to expose joints between each vertebra from roughly her shoulders to the top of her stomach.

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But the sum of their rapid succession, when applied to the surgeon's bone-cutting chisel or osteotome, carves away bone precisely to the surgeon's design.

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Its latest development, the dento-surgical engine, is of heavier construction and is adapted to operations upon all of the bones, a recent addition to its equipment being the spiral osteotome of Cryer, by which, with a minimum shock to the patient, fenestrae of any size or shape in the brain-case may be made, from a simple trepanning operation to the more extensive openings required in intra-cranial operations.

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When the deformity is comparatively slight, the bone is divided with an osteotome and straightened; when there is marked bending or angling, a wedge is taken from the convexity, as in the operation for bow-leg.

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