Hello and welcome to this lesson on common assistance practices. In this lesson we are going to cover some fundamental practices you are likely to come across whilst assisting.  ​ We have already covered some of these in section 3 of this course, so it may be worth revisiting those.  ​ First is the use of retractors. In many different types of surgery, from general surgery to orthopaedics, the use of retractors is commonplace. As you probably already know, their use is to open the operative site and provide a better view of the operative site to the surgeon. This is the key thing to remember for an assistant. Your job is to make the operation easier for the lead surgeon. When in charge of the retractors, usually the surgeon will start by taking retractors from the scrub nurse, put them in the position they need and expect you to grasp the handle and maintain that position. When doing this, think about how to hold the retractor most comfortably as you may need to pull on them quite hard for a long time. I personally hold them like this is possible.   ​ The exact operative site may change though. During the initial stages of the operation especially whilst the tissues are being dissected, it would be very useful to the surgeon if you followed the surgeons knife with your retractors.  ​ Common retractors you may use include: - Langenbecks - Kilner or Cat-paws - Skin Hooks - Morrisons ​ Next is suturing.  ​ At the end of the operation, depending on your confidence with suturing, you may be asked to suture the superficial most layer - this will often be the subcuticular layer or the skin itself. Every operation demands different sutures and the topic is simply too vast for us to cover, however there are a few things to look out for: ​ Firstly, is it a braided or monofilament suture. The slippery monofilament sutures are better for infection risk, however they are harder to handle and often kink if you don't keep them under control. Secondly, is it to be interrupted or uninterrupted. If the surgeon doesn't tell you, make sure you ask.  ​ We usually advise you to allow the surgeon to start and end the suturing until you are happy with the tying process as this can be quite tricky to master and if done wrong can cause complications.