The field of surgical research has been growing rapidly with the development of new surgical and disease models. An extremely important and often overlooked aspect of creating these models is the proper selection and implementation of surgical instrumentation and equipment. It is imperative to identify and select the appropriate instrumentation and equipment for the intended surgical procedure to be able to perform the procedure correctly. Other considerations when choosing surgical instruments are their ergonomic properties while making sure that instruments and equipment are of adequate quality and meet longevity requirements. Most research facilities do not have surgical instrument and equipment procurement specialists on site. Moreover, most personnel performing rodent surgeries do not have the same level of surgical training as human or veterinary surgeons. Therefore, identifying the most appropriate instruments, considering the number of instrument companies, quality and size, can be overwhelming. Inappropriate surgical instrumentation and equipment selection increases the risk of poor surgical technique and surgical complications leading to poor outcomes. This presentation describes several points that should be considered when selection and procurement of surgical instrumentation and equipment to optimize procedural outcome, thus decreasing confounding factors, risk of morbidity and mortality, and expense in the long term.