Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

Lynne Vickers — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:15:45 GMT

I hope you’re ready for this one…

West is what we in the UK call a small (140mm) sharp pronged Weislander/ Weitlaner. The small blunt equivalent being known as a Weislander

We refer to the larger sizes 200mm and 240mm as a Weitlaner and these can be either sharp or blunt.

In the country of origin, Germany, they are all known as Weitlaners or Weislander but they would never refer to them as a West.

Clear as mud??!!

Basically they are all the same type of retractor but the West is small and sharp

Hope this helps

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

Alison Clare Hickman — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:12:02 GMT

http://www.cssurgical.com/images/weitlaner-retractor.gif

Weitlaner have a 2 / 3 sharp claw formation.

West's have 4 / 4 or a 3 / 4.

x x

ps ?? you're not getting confused by Weislander retractors are you, coz they are extremely similar to a West... (only diff = Weislanders come in both blunt and sharp tipped claws) in fact I would be very hard pushed to tell the difference (I can only tell difference as we use the blunt tipped Weislander's - Wests are always sharp...)

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

Catherine Raymond — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:11:26 GMT

For any instrument queries, I look at the Veterinary instrumentation book first, as they sometimes have little nuggets of info along with the pictures.

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

Calli D — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:04:13 GMT

[quote user="Catherine Raymond"]

The arms of the west retractor are curved, whilst the weislander retractor arms are flat. The wests are more popular as they rest nicely on the patient due to the curved arms.

Hope that helps.

[/quote]

Oooo ... cool, major help. thankyou soo much. Am sure she will be able to sleep tonight now without worrying over this one.

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

Calli D — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:02:16 GMT

Yes I guess we will try that tomorrow. I am pretty sure our students have an instrument book but the difference is not obvious. To be truthfull, I had never heard of a weitlaner Retractor until today. Is that bad ?! On sites that describe the west, they don't have info on the other, and vice versa. This is not going to be an easy one to suss out.

oops .. and just realised spelled it wrong in the title thingy .. It should have read Weitlaner, not weilaner. Sorry bout that

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

Catherine Raymond — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:58:25 GMT

The arms of the west retractor are curved, whilst the weislander retractor arms are flat. The wests are more popular as they rest nicely on the patient due to the curved arms.

Hope that helps.

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

F1chick — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:57:55 GMT

Could you phone an instrument company?

Re: Retractors help please - WEST and WEILANER

F1chick — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:56:22 GMT

no, sorry, I've never heard of the others and they look the same to me on google. I may have a surgical nursing book in the loft....