Tenaculum

A tenaculum is a surgical instrument, usually classified as a type of forceps.

It consists of a slender sharp-pointed hook attached to a handle and is used mainly in surgery for seizing and holding parts, such as blood vessels.

During the Civil War in the United States, this tool was used to remove bullets from the patient’s body or to pull out arteries to tie them off.

Inspired by the shape of the bullet extractor, Samuel Jean Pozzi, a pioneer of modern gynecology, developed, at the end of 19th century, a gynecological tool called the Pozzi forceps, also known as the tenaculum.

[4][5][6] An alternative suction-based device was approved by the FDA in 2023[7] and by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK in 2024[8] but as of 2024 is not available for sale.