Williger Self Retaining Retractors, Sharp Prongs

What a self retaining retractor is

A self retaining retractor is any retractor that holds an opening apart without being held: the arms lock where they are set and release when you want them to. This one is the Williger pattern on a ring handled frame, with sharp prongs for periosteum.

And there is a genuine confusion worth clearing up on this page, because it is the one buyers run into. The Williger most catalogues sell is NOT self retaining. It is a flat handled rake, usually 3 or 4 sharp prongs, that an assistant pulls on. The self retaining version exists, it is what we make, and it is a different instrument to order even though the name is the same. If your list just says Williger retractor, check which one it means.

Key design features

What self retaining actually means

It means the instrument holds the opening without being held. The two arms run on a scissor frame with a catch between the shanks: open them to where you want them, the catch engages, and they stay. The opposite is a hand held retractor, which works perfectly well and costs an assistant. In a short operation with two people scrubbed, that assistant is the whole difference.

The Williger tip, on a frame it does not usually have

A classic Williger is a flat handle with three or four sharp prongs on the end, pulled by hand, and it is used to peel periosteum back off bone. This is that tip put on a self retaining frame. Nothing about the prongs changes; what changes is that it holds itself. That is why a search for a Williger brings back mostly hand held instruments and this one is not among them.

Sharp prongs, and when sharp is right

Periosteum is tough and a blunt prong walks off it. Where the tissue to be held is dense and superficial and there is no nerve immediately under it, sharp prongs hold where blunt ones slip. That is the trade: sharp for grip, blunt for safety, and it is decided by what is under the prong rather than by preference.

One piece, with nothing screwed on

Frame, arms and prongs are made as one. No pinned prong carrier to work out of true and no screw to back off. On an instrument that is sprung open under load and then run through a washer several hundred times, the joints you do not have are the ones that never fail.

The types of self retaining retractor, and where this one sits

Buyers ask what the types are more often than they ask anything else about this class, so here they are, with what each one suits.

Where it is used

It is chosen for the SIZE of the opening and for being short of hands, rather than for a specialty.

What it holds, and what it must not pinch

Sharp prongs hold what blunt prongs slip off, and go through what blunt prongs would only mark. Both halves of that matter.

How it compares with the rest of the family

One frame, one lock, five tip layouts. The difference between them is always the working end.

Materials and finish

Every williger self retaining retractor we make is cut from high quality medical grade stainless steel. The steel itself is made to a German specification. We do not publish a grade number, because the number on a certificate tells a surgeon nothing about whether the lock still holds after two hundred autoclave cycles, and the answer to that is in the teeth and the finish rather than in the alloy.

The lock teeth are cut and then hardened, because that is the part that decides how long the instrument stays useful: a lock that rounds off opens under load and the surgeon finds out mid case. The prongs are ground and then polished by hand. On a sharp prong the polish is not cosmetic, it is the difference between a prong that enters tissue cleanly and one that drags it.

Caring for it

Open the arms fully before it goes near a washer. A self retaining retractor closed on itself traps blood in the lock teeth, and dried blood in a lock is why these instruments start to slip. Brush the hinge and every tooth, then ultrasonic with a neutral pH enzymatic detergent.

Rinse in deionized water, dry fully with the arms open, autoclave at 134 degrees Celsius, and lubricate the hinge after drying rather than before. Check the prong tips each time: a sharp prong that has been dropped rolls over at the point, and a rolled point tears what it should hold. We replace a crept lock or a rolled prong inside the three years.

Ordering and wholesale

Every Williger self retaining retractor we sell is made in our own workshop and sold direct, which is why the price sits where it does against the catalogue houses. Order one for a single tray, or in quantity for a hospital list or a distributor line; we do OEM work under your own brand and your own item numbers, and we will hold a run to your pattern rather than ours if you send a sample. Stock items ship from our own workshop. Backorder items take 10 to 12 working days to make. Every instrument carries a three year replacement warranty against manufacturing defects. Production is controlled under an ISO 13485 quality management system.

Frequently asked questions

What is a self retaining retractor?

A retractor that holds an opening apart on its own. Two arms run on a scissor frame with a catch between the shanks: open the arms, the catch engages, and the opening stays where you put it until the catch is released. The alternative is a hand held retractor, which needs somebody pulling on it for the whole case.

What is another name for a self retaining retractor?

Self retracting retractor is the same thing, and so is automatic retractor in older catalogues. Beyond that the names are pattern names rather than class names: Weitlaner, Wullstein, Plester, Belluci, Williger, Gelpi, Balfour, Bookwalter. All of them hold themselves open; what differs is the tip and the size.

What are the types of self retaining retractor?

Five, and they are in the table above: prongs on both arms, prongs one arm with a solid blade on the other, a ring handled rake like this one, a frame or ring fixed to the table for deep cavity work, and hand held patterns that are not self retaining at all. We make the first three. The frame retractors, which is where the Bookwalter and the Balfour sit, we do not.

Is a Williger retractor normally self retaining?

No, and this is the thing to check before ordering. The usual Williger is a flat handled rake with 3 or 4 sharp prongs that somebody pulls on. A self retaining Williger puts that same tip on a ring handled locking frame, and that is what this product is. Both are sold under the one name, so if a list says Williger retractor without saying which, ask.

What is a non self retaining retractor?

A hand held one. A Langenbeck, a Senn, a plain rake, a Williger with a flat handle: somebody holds it and adjusts it as the exposure changes. That is not a worse instrument, it is a different job. Hand held wins where the view keeps moving; self retaining wins where it does not and you are short of hands.

Related products and categories

For prongs on both arms in a compact ear sized frame, see the Wullstein self retaining retractor. Where one margin is a soft flap that needs holding along a length, the Plester mastoid retractor carries a solid blade on one arm, and the Plester left solid blade retractor is its left handed pair. The rest of the family sits in self retaining retractors, and the fine patterns are listed under micro surgery instruments.