Balfour retractor
Self-retaining retractor with a metal frame and two (or three) lateral blades locked in place by a central ratchet.
How it is used
Exposing the abdominal cavity in laparotomies (hysterectomy, cesarean section, gastric and bowel surgery), without needing an assistant to hold retraction.
Clinical tip
Unlike the Bookwalter retractor, it does not attach to the operating table, making it quicker to set up but giving less exposure in obese patients.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
Image: Saltanat ebli, Wikimedia Commons. License CC0 1.0. View original source.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-02.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.