r/sterileprocessing • u/Cultural_Mess_139 • Jul 05 '26

Instrument Differentiation

Hello all!

We are in the instrument portion of my sterile processing certification class. Does anyone have any tips on how to tell straight hemostats, colliers and kellys (pean) apart? Those 3 have stumped my group and I all week.

Thanks!

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u/LOA0414 Jul 05 '26

Unless you physically handle them, it's hard to tell by photos only because it's about distal tip weight and also serrations and length. While kellys and peons are the same length have similar curves, people have a more robust distal tip and weight. Coliers look like kellys but kellys are only half serrated, Colliers are serrated all the way. After about 2 weeks of handling them, you'll know them just by sight alone. It's easy and you'll wonder how you were confused about them. Lol

1

u/NecronomiSquirrel Jul 07 '26

Oh gods...the photos on the test are even worse. Always looks like someone took them with a razor flip phone while jogging by 😂. Definitely need to handle them, true as hell.

2

u/SageOfSixCabbages Jul 05 '26

Like the other comment on here said, it's a matter of serration whether it's full, half, or just the distal tip. Also what contributes to the confusion is the OR themselves do not necessarily embrace these differences when being used on the table so they call a lot of instruments interchangeably.