GB1274432A - Improved retractor - Google Patents

Abstract

1,274,432. Retractors and clamps. T. A. ENGLISH. 19 April, 1971 [14 Jan., 1970], No. 1765/70. Heading A5R. A retractor which may be used to expose a bone 22 comprises two flat arms 10, 12 having at one end respective arcuate hooks 14, 16, the hooks being of such a size that one fits inside the other, the cooperating surfaces of the hooks being formed to allow relative rotational movement of the arms in one sense but not in the opposite sense. The larger hook preferably has at least one transverse projection on its inner arcuate surface which projection is arranged to slip successively into a plurality of grooves in the outer arcuate surface of the smaller hook as the arms are moved to a splayed position. The projection and grooves may extend either fully or partially across the width of the hooks. The free ends of the hooks may have chisel edges. The ends of the arms remote from the hooks may be adapted to hold a bar 38 enabling the retractor to be used as a clamp to hold a member 52 against the bone. The member 52 may be a splint plate (62), Fig. 5, (not shown), used in splicing a fractured bone. At one end the bar 38 is received in a slot 40 and is held to arm 12 by a screw 42 and a hand wheel 50, or alternatively, Fig. 3, (not shown), by a toothed lever (32) cooperating with a slot in the bar. The bar 38 may be replaced by a wire member (64), Fig. 5, having end portions (64b, 64c) arranged to be held beneath the arms of the retractor.