State Assembly of South Carolina - Association of Surgical Technology

04/15/2026

Happy Surgical Assistant Week to all our hardworking assistants!!

03/30/2026

A sincere expression of gratitude is extended to all participants and attendees of this weekend's workshop at the Sharing Hope Facility of SC. From smoke legislation awareness to the understanding of the gift of organ donation and the complexities involved in this process. Appreciation is also extended to Michael Palmisano and the Sharing Hope family for their selfless acts of kindness demonstrated on a daily basis.

02/21/2026

Registration is open! This is an event that you do not want to miss!!

01/28/2026

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas SCSA Family!!

11/27/2025

To all of our SCSA family…. Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving ‼️‼️🦃🦃

11/02/2025

Love our students‼️

11/02/2025

SCSA Student track was a success today! Huge thanks to Marianne Caviston, CST, program director for Florence Darlington Technical College Surgical Technology Program for her “Identifying Specimens” session!

11/01/2025

SCSA has started this morning with first presentation with Dr. Srinivasan Kolla: Robotic Surgical Care for the Lung Cancer Patient.

10/24/2025

🩺 Fun Fact Friday: The Story Behind the Bookwalter Retractor

If you've worked in the OR for any length of time, you've heard of the Bookwalter. But behind the name engraved on that retractor ring was a surgeon with an inventive spirit, Dr. John R. Bookwalter, a man whose curiosity and creativity helped reshape surgical retraction and surgical care.

Dr. Bookwalter was born in Ohio in 1938. Both his grandfather and his father were physicians, and his mother was a nurse, and their influence along with an early exposure to paitent care, led him to pursue medicine as well. After graduating cm laude from Amherst College and earning his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Bookwalter served his country as a surgeon in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel in the Army Reserve.

It was in the operating room that inspiration struck. Long surgeries required assistants to manually hold retractors for hours, which was not only exhausting, but could be imprecise. Dr. Bookwalter saw a better way. In the 1970s, he began developing a table-mounted retraction system that could free the assistant’s hands ad provide consistent exposure and visibility.

In 1979, the first Bookwalter Retractor System was introduced, and it quickly became an essential tool in open surgery. For more than four decades, its innovative design has stood the test of time, used in operating rooms around the world.

Dr. Bookwalter often said, “Good exposure is the key to good surgery.” His invention made that principle a reality, transforming how surgeons approach complex cases and ensuring better outcomes for patients everywhere.

Dr. Bookwalter passed away peacefully on May 2, 2025, but his legacy lives on in operating rooms around the world.