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In the United States, there were around 250,000 breast augmentations performed in 2004. Breast retractors are commonly used in these procedures to aid the surgeon by holding up the breast tissue while the surgeon uses an electrocautery tool to cut muscle and other tissues to form a pocket. During this process, smoke is formed so retractors have suction holes to remove the smoke from the cavity. In addition, the cavity is quite dark, so proper lighting of the area is essential for a precise completion to the pocket formation. Today, breast retractors require the surgeon to hold up the breast tissue while simultaneously forming the breast pocket. This can cause some strain on the surgeon’s arm since the procedure takes around 45 minutes for both breasts. Thus, our client would like us to develop a surgical retractor for breast surgery that can reduce the force required by the surgeon, while simultaneously providing a powerful light source (within a dissected pocket) and a suction device.
Our team: Eric Bader, Arinne Lyman, Sarajane Stevens, Christopher Westphal.
This is a profile of a 3d rendering of our future design from the side. The tubes running under the top blade are for light and suction.
This is an image of the doctor’s view of our new design when looking into the incision.
Finishing our second prototype and working on the final presentation.
| Week | Reporting Period Beginning | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 20 | Meet with client to discuss project specifics. |
| 2 | January 27 | Conduct independent research and work on possible designs. |
| 3 | February 3 | Continue individual research and further improve our individual designs |
| 4 | February 10 | Continue individual research and discuss or designs with our client. |
| 5 | February 17 | Work on our midsemester presentations and finalize our three designs. |
| 6 | February 24 | Finish our presentations and practice for the midsemester presentations. |
| 7 | March 3 | Work and finish our midsemester papers |
| 8 | March 10 | Start working on our design and start production of a prototype |
| 9 | March 17 | Working on order materials including light and suction sources |
| 10 | March 24 | Finish production of first prototype and test for compression. |
| 11 | March 31 | Discuss improvements of our first prototype and continue researching ideas on light and suction. |
| 12 | April 7 | Design and construct 2nd prototype |
| 13 | April 14 | Buy light and suction parts and equipment. Start working on final paper. |
| 14 | April 21 | Test second prototype and finish final report. |
| 15 | April 28 | Finish project and give final presentations. |
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Breast Retractor Progress Design Statement (Feb 3 2006, 35 kb) |
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Breast Retractor Midsemester Presentation (Feb 24 2006, 674 kb) |
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Mid-Semester Report (Mar 3 2006, 401 kb) |
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Final Report (Apr 28 2006, 892 kb) |
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Final Presentation (May 10 2006, 2604 kb) |
