The Laryngeal-Modular Skin Retractor

Self-retaining skin retractors provide an open and wide surgical window during procedures without the need for additional manual retraction from OR staff. These devices are prevalent across a variety of surgeries, but in our area of interest, laryngectomy procedures, there are no current devices available on the market. Therefore, the extensive amount of skin and muscle tissue must be retracted manually by the surgical assistants. Laryngectomies are a very lengthy procedure. Therefore, the surgical assistants can become fatigued, increasing the probability of human error when manually retracting these tissues. The goal of our device is to provide a viable solution that will retract the skin and muscle tissues without compromising the surgical window for the physicians so that surgical assistants would be allowed to aid in other components of the procedure. Our device will reduce the amount of operating room time and lower the cost of expenses, for both the hospital and the patient.