Surgical

A spore-forming bacterium whose spores are used in biological indicators that test ethylene oxide and dry heat sterilization.

A large stainless steel table that holds the sterile instruments and supplies not in immediate use during an operation.

Able to kill bacteria.

A sterile irrigating fluid balanced to suit the eye's tissues, used to keep the cornea moist and to irrigate inside the eye.

Surgery that reattaches the torn labrum and capsule to the front rim of the shoulder socket (glenoid) to stop repeated shoulder dislocations.

A printed or etched pattern of lines or dots that a scanner reads, so a computer can identify an item and record where it has been.

Relating to the care and treatment of obesity, including weight-loss surgery and equipment built for heavier patients.

Thumb forceps with an offset, bayonet-shaped bend, so the surgeon's hand stays out of the line of sight when working through a narrow opening.

A bone screw that passes through both hard outer layers of a bone and the spongy bone between them.

IV regional anesthesia: local anesthetic injected into a vein of a limb that has been emptied of blood and closed off with a tourniquet.

The branching system of ducts that carries bile from the liver and gallbladder to the duodenum.

The number of microorganisms on an item before disinfection or sterilization.

A community of microbes stuck to a surface inside a slimy layer they make themselves, as on instruments, catheters, implants or wounds.

A biological material, such as blood, body fluids or used sharps, that can spread infection to people.

A test holding live bacterial spores that are hard to kill, run through a sterilizer and then incubated to show whether the cycle killed them.

The hospital department that inspects, tests, maintains and repairs patient care equipment.

A number from 0 to 100, read by sensors on the forehead, that shows how deeply the brain is anesthetized; about 40 to 60 is the usual target.

The fold of peritoneum between the bladder and the front of the uterus, opened and pushed down in a cesarean or abdominal hysterectomy.

The hospital department that types, crossmatches, stores and issues blood and blood products for transfusion.

A break of the thin floor or inner wall of the eye socket, with the rim around the eye left whole.

In surgery, a short piece of tubing or a pad that a suture runs through or ties over, so the stitch does not cut into the skin.

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), a powder and liquid mixed on the field into a dough that hardens to anchor implants or fill bone.

The piece of skull cut free and lifted off during a craniotomy so the surgeon can reach the dura and brain, usually put back at the end.

Bone or a bone substitute placed to fill a gap, support a weak repair or help new bone grow, as in a spinal fusion.

A soft, waxy material pressed onto the cut surface of bone to seal it and stop it bleeding.

The legal doctrine that whoever directs an employee's work, rather than whoever pays them, bears more responsibility for it.

A long, thin, flexible rod or tube passed into a passage to guide a breathing tube into the trachea or to widen a narrowed passage such as the esophagus.

A partial or complete blockage that stops food, fluid and gas from moving through the small or large bowel.

Surgery to remove a section of the small or large intestine.

Keeping every instrument and supply that touches open bowel apart from the clean setup, to stop bowel bacteria spreading to the wound.

A daily test that checks whether a prevacuum steam sterilizer removes all the air from its chamber.

The joint in the middle of a ringed instrument where its two halves cross and pivot, keeping the jaws lined up so the tips meet.

The network of nerves formed from the spinal nerves C5 to T1 that runs from the neck into the armpit and supplies the shoulder, arm and hand.

A smooth, flat, bendable metal blade used as a retractor to hold brain tissue gently aside during brain surgery.

Anything that contaminates, or may have contaminated, a sterile surface in the sterile field; it is reported to the team and fixed at once.

Surgery that enlarges or reshapes the breast with an implant placed under the breast tissue or the pectoralis muscle.

The reservoir bag on the anesthesia machine's breathing circuit, squeezed by hand to breathe for the patient.

A short meeting of the surgical team before the procedure to confirm the plan of care, prepare for likely changes and raise safety concerns.

The wide double fold of peritoneum that runs from each side of the uterus to the side wall of the pelvis.

A section of a lung lobe with its own tertiary bronchus and its own branch of the pulmonary artery, the lung's smallest surgical unit.

A lighted viewing instrument passed through the mouth or nose and down the trachea to look inside the airway, take samples or remove an object.

A long-acting local anesthetic used to numb an area, block nerves, or give epidural and spinal anesthesia.

One of the thicker pillars of bone in the face that carry the force of chewing, with thin bone and sinuses between them.