ABSTRACT
NOT TOO LONG AGO, the term medical instrument stood for simple hand-held instrumentsused by physicians for observing patients, examining organs, making simple measurements, oradministering medication. These small instruments, such as stethoscopes, thermometers, tongue depressors, and a few surgical tools, typically fit into a physician’s hand bag. Today’s medical instruments are considerably more complicated and diverse, primarily because they incorporate electronic systems for sensing, transducing, manipulating, storing, and displaying data or information. Furthermore, medical specialists today request detailed and accurate measurements of a vast number of physiologic parameters for diagnosing illnesses and prescribe complicated procedures for treating these. As a result, the number
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of medical instruments and devices has grown from a few hundred a generation ago to more than 10,000 today, and the complexity of these instruments has grown at the same pace. The description of all these instruments and devices would fill an entire handbook by itself; however, due to the limited space assigned to this topic, only a selected number are described.
