Science and Medicine

Cranial drill

A cranial drill, also known as a craniotome, is a tool for drilling simple burr holes (trepanation) or for creating larger openings in the skull. This exposes the brain and allows operations such as craniotomy and craniectomy to be done. The drill itself can be manually or electrically driven, and primarily consists of a handpiece and a drill bit, which is a sharp tool that has a form similar to Archimedes' screw; this instrument must be inserted into the drill chuck to perform holes and remove materials. The trepanation tool is generally equipped with a clutch which automatically disengages once it touches a softer tissue, thus preventing tears in the dura mater. For larger openings, the craniotome is an instrument that has replaced manually pulled saw wires in craniotomies from the 1980s.

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See also

• ▸Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• ▸Al-Karmil
• ▸Edward Flatau

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