A surgical retractor (10) and method for retracting tissue in a patient is anatomically designed for particular muscles and includes a light source (16) the light beam (LP) of which is positionable relative to the surgical retractor. The surgical retractor (10) has a pair of retraction blades/arms (30, 60) carried on separate retraction portions (12, 14) held open by ratchet assemblies (100, 102). Blades (30, 60) are manually retracted and held open by automatically engaging ratchet fingers (52, 53) and are designed to match muscle curvature, minimizing various risks and incision size. The first retraction portion (12) carries the first blade (30) and includes tines (20, 21) each with ratchet grooves (24, 25), while the second retraction portion (14) carries the second blade (60) on a carriage (46) that is movably carried on the tines (20, 21). Resilient spring actuated fingers associated (54, 55) with the carriage (46) has ratchet grooves (80, 81) that co-act with the ratchet grooves (24, 25) of the tines (20, 21) to provide the ratchet assemblies (100, 102) between the retraction portions that regulates movement of the carriage (46) and the second blade (60) relative to the first blade (30).
