Development of novel medical instruments based on sapphire shaped crystals

In this work, we summarize and discuss a set of medical instruments based on sapphire shaped crystals, which are able to combine several modalities, such as tissue resection, aspiration, intraoperative diagnosis, laser therapy and coagulation. Due to the application of sapphire, these types of medical instruments are biocompatible and resist multiple sterilization and direct contact with biological tissues and liquids. Application of the edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) technique leads to the fabrication of sapphire instruments with complex form and shape aimed at solution of different medical tasks.