Procedures and skills

A word ending that means a puncture with a needle to draw out fluid.

An open operation that enters the maxillary sinus through the mouth, above the upper teeth, to clear disease and make a drainage window into the nose.

A walking stick used to give support and balance while walking.

A thin tube placed into the body or a body opening to deliver or remove fluid or air.

A quick test that measures how fast color returns to a nail bed after it is pressed and released.

The step of cataract surgery that tears a continuous round opening in the front of the lens capsule.

A procedure in which a thin tube is threaded through a blood vessel into the heart to take pictures, measure pressures or open blocked arteries.

A machine that shows the heart's electrical rhythm on a screen without stopping, using electrodes on the chest.

Using a heart-lung machine to pump and oxygenate the blood outside the body, so the heart can be stopped for surgery.

Emergency chest compressions, with or without rescue breaths, to keep blood flowing when the heart has stopped.

Changing an abnormal fast heart rhythm back to normal with a timed electric shock or with drugs.

The pulse felt in the neck over the carotid artery, in the groove beside the windpipe.

A rigid dressing of plaster or fiberglass that goes all the way around a body part to hold it still while it heals.

The nursing care and teaching that keep a cast, and the limb inside it, safe and healthy.

Surgery that removes the clouded lens of the eye, almost always replacing it with an intraocular lens.

A thin, flexible tube put into the body to drain fluid out or to put fluid or drugs in.

An infection of the blood that comes from germs entering through an intravenous catheter.

An epidural block given from below, through an opening at the base of the sacrum, to numb the perineum, groin and lower body.

Collecting the blood a patient loses during surgery, washing or filtering it, and giving it back to the same patient.

An IV catheter whose tip sits in a large vein near the heart, used for long-term drugs, fluids, nutrition or blood draws.

The blood pressure in the large vein near the heart's right atrium, measured through a central line.

A superficial vein that runs up the thumb side of the arm from the hand to the shoulder, where it empties into the axillary vein.

An encircling band of strong suture, tape or wire, most often placed around the cervix to hold it closed during pregnancy.

The opening of the cervix during labor, measured in centimeters from 0 to 10.

Plastic surgery of the lip, most often the repair of a cleft lip.

Pressing down hard and fast on the center of the chest to pump blood when the heart has stopped.

A closed, three-chamber box connected to a chest tube that collects drainage, stops air from going back into the chest and controls suction.

Two firm, padded rolls placed lengthwise under a prone patient, one on each side, from the collarbones to the hip bones.

A tube placed through the chest wall into the space around the lung to drain air, blood or fluid.

An opening made into the gallbladder through the abdominal wall, usually with a drainage tube, to drain it.

Looking inside the common bile duct with a thin scope, the choledochoscope, to find and remove stones.

A prenatal test that takes a small sample of tissue from the placenta to check the baby's chromosomes and genes.

Shaped like a circle, or moving in a circle.

More fluid in the blood vessels than the heart and circulation can handle.

Surgery to remove the foreskin, the skin that covers the tip of the penis.

A device that squeezes something shut, such as a tube or blood vessel, to stop flow.

Putting on sterile gloves with the hands kept inside the gown sleeves, so bare skin never touches the outside of a glove.

Putting the pieces of a broken bone back into line by hand or with traction, without an incision to expose the fracture.

An abbreviation for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the US agency that runs Medicare, or for a circulation, motor and sensation check.

A talk therapy that helps a person notice unhelpful thoughts and change the thoughts and actions that keep a problem going.

A cold pack or cloth placed on the body to cool an area.

An exam of the inside of the large intestine with a long, flexible tube that has a camera on its end.

A surgical opening that brings part of the colon through the belly wall, so stool leaves the body into a pouch.

Surgical repair of a weakened vaginal wall: anterior for a cystocele, posterior for a rectocele.

Surgery that opens or enters the common bile duct to find and remove stones, usually during a cholecystectomy.

Whether two things, such as two drugs or a donor's and a recipient's blood, can be put together safely.

Pressing on or squeezing a body part, on purpose as a treatment, or as harm from something pressing on it.

A tight elastic stocking that squeezes the leg, most firmly at the ankle, to help blood flow back toward the heart.

Removal of a cone-shaped piece of the cervix around the cervical canal, to diagnose or treat abnormal cells; also called a cone biopsy.

The state of being awake and aware of oneself and one's surroundings.