| abstract |
Apparatus useful in surgery for holding retractors (10,70) and other surgical instrumentation in a number of different positions required by a surgeon for the performance of a surgical procedure, including advanced sensing and regulation (72) of retraction pressures and position; and incorporating a force amplification method (102,96,104,88) to drive a locking mechanism (84) in the supporting structure (86) that utilizes a constrained, substantially incompressible, flexible solid material (88) to yield a mechanism that is suitable for clinical use. |