Abstract
Donald Church Balfour, MD (1882-1963), a legendary general surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, first described the Balfour self-retaining abdominal retractor in 1912. The retractor remains in use in 2022, 110 years after its development.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Clagett
OT
. General Surgery at the Mayo Clinic. 1900-1970 . Rochester, MN : Mayo Clinic ; 1980 .
2.
Eusterman
GB
Balfour
DC
. The Stomach and Duodenum . Philadelphia, PA : WB Saunders ; 1935 .
3.
Balfour
DC
. Results of gastroenterostomy for ulcer of the duodenum and stomach . Ann Surg . 1935 ;92 :558 -562 .
4.
Balfour
DC
. A method of anastomosis between sigmoid and rectum . Ann Surg . 1910 ;51 :239 -241 .
5.
Nelson
CW
. Mayo Roots. Profiling the Origins of Mayo Clinic . Rochester, MN: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research ; 1990 .
6.
Balfour
DC
. A combination abdominal retractor . Ann Surg . 1912 ;55 :419 -420 .
