A cranioclast (from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

κρανίον ''kranion'' "head, scull" and -κλάστης ''-klastes'' "breaker") is

surgical instrument A surgical instrument is a tool or device for performing specific actions or carrying out desired effects during a surgery or operation, such as modifying biological tissue, or to provide access for viewing it. Over time, many different kinds of ...

akin to a strong

forceps Forceps (plural forceps or considered a plural noun without a singular, often a pair of forceps; the Latin plural ''forcipes'' is no longer recorded in most dictionaries) are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Fo ...

. It was once used to crush and then extract the skull of a

fetus A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal dev ...

so as to facilitate delivery in cases of obstructed labour.''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'': "cranioclast"
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Pictures

Image:Medical_Instruments_O&G_Cranioclast_open.jpg, Open Image:Medical_Instruments_O&G_Cranioclast_closed.jpg, Closed

References

{{reflist Surgical instruments

Pictures

See also

References