Langenbeck Green Retractor, 17 cm

The Langenbeck is one of the most widely stocked retractor patterns in surgery, and its persistence comes from being unspecialised. Its right-angled blade hooks over a wound edge and holds it back by shape rather than by grip, so an assistant can maintain the exposure for long periods with very little force. Nothing about it is tuned to one procedure, which is exactly why it turns up in almost all of them.

17 cm places it in the commonly used middle of the range — enough reach for a moderate wound with the hand outside it, short enough not to project awkwardly across a shallow one. The Green variant is the shorter-bladed member of the family, suited to exposures where the full-depth Langenbeck blade would bottom out against tissue before the blade seated properly on the wound edge.

Specifications