Abstract: A surgical retractor for holding an incision in an open configuration comprising a compartment that has a flexible condition for placing the compartment into engagement with the tissue of the incision and a rigid condition for holding the tissue apart. The compartment contains elastically compressible beads and a fluid such as air and changes to the rigid condition by evacuating the air through the valve so that the wall of the compartment collapses to pack the beads together in a monolith of the desired shape. The compartment, which may be in the shape of an oval or an elongated tube, has a thickened portion oriented interior to the incision for preventing punctures, which carries optionally a light source such as a fiber optic bundle for illuminating the surgical area and also a suction source for evacuation of fluids, vapors, odors or smoke from the operative site.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for starting and feeding intravenous solutions through a catheter is disclosed comprising two chambers in tandem, the first chamber having a catheter attached to one end, a resealing port opposite the catheter and a permanent tube port for receiving intravenous solutions into the first chamber, and the second chamber, or flash chamber, having a long hollow needle at one end, inserted through the resealing port and catheter of the first chamber, and a squeeze bulb at the other end for urging a sample of blood through the needle into the flash chamber to signal that a blood vessel has been penetrated. To place the catheter in a blood vessel, the intravenous solution is connected to the tube port of the first chamber, the bulb is squeezed, then the needle carrying the catheter is pushed into the skin and the squeezed bulb released. Blood flashes into the flash chamber, urged by the vacuum created by the released squeeze bulb, as the needle enters a blood vessel.