Brunetti’s spine chisel
Mutter’s “A Stitch in Spine Saves Nine: Innovations in Spinal Surgery” exhibit is a showcase of the development of spinal medicine over the years.
According to the museum’s website, the exhibit focuses on minimally invasive spinal surgery and highlights several late 20th-century laparoscopic instruments.
One instrument featured on the museum’s YouTube program, “Guess What’s on the Curator’s Desk,” was a Brunetti’s spine chisel. Curator Anna Dhody said the device was designed for autopsies or dissections to dig into the spinal column and carefully pop it out.
It’s slightly disconcerting to see that the same tool used to sculpt rocks was inserted into the spine.