Procedures and skills

An isotonic IV fluid containing water, sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and lactate.

Surgery that removes part or all of the lamina, the bony roof at the back of a vertebra, to take pressure off the spinal cord or nerve roots.

Surgery or an exam done through small cuts in the belly, using a thin, lighted tube with a camera.

An airway tube with a small inflatable mask on its end that sits over the larynx from above, placed through the mouth without a laryngoscope.

Surgical removal of part or all of the larynx, most often for cancer.

A lighted instrument with a handle and a blade, used to see the vocal cords so a breathing tube can be placed.

The first day of a person's most recent menstrual period.

Toward the side of the body, away from the middle line.

Lying on one side.

Washing out a body cavity or organ with repeated flows of fluid.

A check that a device or a sealed join holds pressure without leaking, most often a flexible endoscope before it is cleaned.

Four steps of feeling the pregnant abdomen with the hands to find how the fetus is lying in the uterus.

Surgery that removes fat from under the skin with hollow cannulas connected to strong suction.

A position lying on the back with the hips and knees bent and the legs raised and spread apart, often in stirrups.

Breaking a stone in the kidney, ureter, bladder or gallbladder into small pieces, with shock waves from outside the body or energy passed through a scope.

Surgery that removes a lobe of an organ, most often one or more lobes of a lung.

To turn a client as one unit, keeping the head, neck, spine and hips in a straight line.

Removal of the lower sigmoid colon and the upper rectum through the abdomen, joining the colon to the rectum so the anal sphincter is kept.

A procedure in which a needle is put between two bones in the lower back to take out spinal fluid or give medicine; a spinal tap.

The open space inside a tube, such as a blood vessel, the intestine or a catheter.

Surgery that removes part or all of a lung: a wedge, a segment, a lobe or the whole lung.