Instruments for routine arthroscopic surgery of the knee.

The use of operating instruments for routine arthroscopic operations was analysed on 2397 arthroscopies with 986 operations. The biggest group was meniscectomy (n = 358). The most common instrument combination was knife, a straight 4 mm grasper, a 3-4 mm basket forceps and a suction device, which was used in 53% of the cases. Instrument breakage rates were analysed and found to be rather high especially for straight basket forceps (2/100 operations) and grasping forceps (3.6/100 operations). In two cases arthrotomy had to be done to retrieve a broken piece of grasping forceps. 30 degree telescopes used together with a TV-system had to be replaced at a rate of 0.8/100 operations and 70 degree telescopes at 0.2/100 operations.