Operating room personnel and surgeons use surgical retractor devices to keep an incision or wound open during surgery. By restricting them, physicians and nurses have greater visibility and access to underlying organs and tissues.
Retractor instruments are essential during surgery. These come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. With surgical retractor guides illuminated, surgeons can better manoeuvre in deep or minimally-opened cavities. In both the pre-and post-operative periods, the surgical team and patient prefer to see better.
The Applications of Surgical Retractors
The retractor blades used in surgical procedures are not all interchangeable, and selecting the proper retractor blade is crucial. There are two main types of retractors:
- Manual hand retractors are handled by the assistant, the robot, or the surgeon throughout the operation.
- Self-contained Retractors are self-contained (stay open on their own) and have a ratchet, screw, or other clamp types to hold the tissue in place. This enables the surgeon to work with both hands.
Manual Retractors
Senn Retractor
Its name alludes to a portable retractor with two ends for surface tissue retraction. This is often used to treat cosmetic surgery cases, minor bone or joint surgeries, thyroidectomies, and dissections of neck tissues.
Army-Navy
This retractor can retract wounds that are both shallow and superficial. From minor wounds to abdominal surgeries,
Ribbon (Malleable) Retractor
The purpose is to pull the wound out in a severe manner. It can twist into a variety of shapes to restrain the wound.
Hohmann Retractor
It is useful in orthopaedics to expose bone in preparation for treatment.
Farabeuf Retractor
There are a variety of uses for this retractor. This technology is usually limited to dental, wrist and hand treatments, and hernia closure procedures.
Meyerding Retractor
It is often useful in spinal and neurosurgery surgeries, such as a laminectomy, to help keep tissue and muscles from moving.
Deaver Retractor
These help retract wounds that have appeared on the abdominal or chest area. This tool is useful during cholecystectomy (gallbladder surgery) to remove the right side of the liver. The Truncal vagotomy is a technique to remove the left lobe of the liver using the main trunk of the vagus nerve.
Richardson Retractor
Retraction of abdominal or chest incisions takes place. The goal is to make sure that many deep tissues remain intact. Retractors of this type are usually met with a positive response from patients.
Self-Retaining Retractors
Once positioned and fixed in place, these retractors will hold their shape and position for an extended period.
Weitlaner
The Weitlaner is a well-known surgical instrument used in the routine procedure of cosmetic surgery and in treating large bones and joints, such as fractures.
Balfour Abdominal Retractor
It is useful during deep abdominal surgery to retrace the wound’s edges. Wrangler Instruments makes an abdominal retractor for this purpose.
Finochietto Rib Retractor.
A rib spreader, or Finochietto Rib Retractor, is a specialised tool used in thoracic surgery for separating the ribs apart.
The Hip Retractor System
Wrangler Instruments offers a complete line of surgical equipment designed for all types of surgeries. The Hip Retractor System is one of the products that they offer. The self-retaining hip retractor aids in the liberation of the assist staff while at the same time providing a good view of the hip joint while undergoing hip arthroplasty or hip fracture surgery.
Gelpi Retractor
It is most commonly used in the field of invasive surgery. This is especially true in the field of spinal surgery. There are three ways to deal with the spinal column during spinal surgery. As a surgeon, your approach to the spine will affect the type of instruments you use during the surgery. Those of you who have suffered from excruciating back pain at some point and sought relief from it already know about these options:
Surgical methods for the spine fall into three categories:
- Anterior: from the spine’s front
- Posterior: from the spine’s back
- Lateral-along the spine’s side
A third strategy is a lateral approach, also known as minimally intrusive tools. In addition to relieving leg or back discomfort, it helps with degenerative disc disease. The main back muscles aren’t worked during treatment by working on the patient’s side. Traditional treatment for this condition involves splitting the spine’s muscles with an incision in the back. There is more downtime associated with this procedure.
Through a tiny incision in the midline of the spine, surgeons can now remove the problematic joint and disc, then replace them with a bone graft made from your bone. The bone will fuse quicker with the new method than with the old one. The incidence of minimally invasive lumbar spine fusion is on the rise.
Final Thoughts
At Wrangler instruments, the list of surgical retractor devices is extensive, given the size of your whole body—head, neck, torso, arms, and legs—and 100 trillion cells, tissues, and organs. The purpose of retracting and exposing an instrument is to access a surgical area. Rather than simply reducing the number of helpers in the OR, the primary goal is to improve patient safety and exposure.
