Surgical

In general anesthesia, the phase from the secured airway until near the end of the operation, while the patient is kept asleep.

A cancer, or the quality of being malignant: cells that grow out of control, invade nearby tissue and can spread to distant sites.

A rare inherited reaction to certain general anesthesia drugs in which the muscles' metabolism speeds up out of control.

A grade from class I to IV of how much of the throat shows when the patient opens wide, used to predict how hard intubation will be.

An open operation for stress urinary incontinence that stitches the tissue beside the urethra and bladder neck up to the back of the pubic bone.

Replacing more than an adult's whole blood volume within 24 hours, or more than half of it within 4 hours.

Surgery to remove all or part of a breast.

The rounded part of the temporal bone behind the ear, the mastoid process, which holds small air pockets that open into the middle ear.

Surgical removal of diseased bone, the air cells and their lining from the mastoid behind the ear.

A breast lift: surgery that raises and reshapes a drooping breast by moving the nipple up and removing extra skin.

Holding the upper and lower jaws closed together in the correct bite, with wires or bands between bars on the teeth.

A small tray on an adjustable stand placed over or beside the patient during surgery to hold the instruments used most often.

A short, slanted incision in the right lower abdomen over McBurney point, used for an open appendectomy.

A nerve of the brachial plexus that runs down the middle of the forearm and through the carpal tunnel into the hand.

Looking into the mediastinum with a lighted scope passed through a small incision just above the sternal notch, to biopsy lymph nodes.

The space in the middle of the chest between the two lungs, holding the heart, the great vessels, the trachea, the esophagus and the thymus.

A gas used in patient care or to run equipment, such as oxygen, nitrous oxide, medical air, nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

A hospital unit that cares for adults with many kinds of illness and adults recovering from surgery.

The printed information on a drug's container, and the label the team writes for every cup, basin and syringe that holds a drug on the field.

The hollow center of a long bone's shaft, which holds the bone marrow; also called the medullary canal.

In suture, a strand's habit of springing back into the coils or bends of its packet instead of lying straight.

A birth defect in which a sac of meninges filled with cerebrospinal fluid bulges through a gap in the spine, while the spinal cord stays in its canal.

Surgical removal of all or part of a torn meniscus in the knee, usually through an arthroscope.

A C-shaped pad of fibrocartilage between the femur and tibia in the knee; each knee has a medial and a lateral one.

An experienced colleague who gives long-term guidance on a newer colleague's career and growth, as a role model, adviser and advocate.

An amide local anesthetic much like lidocaine, lasting a little longer, used for infiltration and nerve blocks.

The fan-shaped double fold of peritoneum that ties the small intestine to the back wall of the abdomen and carries its vessels, nerves and lymph vessels.

The fold of peritoneum that ties the transverse colon and the sigmoid colon to the back wall of the abdomen; the mesentery of the colon.

A dark blue dye used in surgery to mark tissue, test whether passages are open or leak, find lymph nodes and color the urine.

A powered handpiece with a rotating blade that cuts small pieces of tissue and suctions them away at once.

An imaginary vertical line down the side of the chest from the middle of the armpit, between the anterior and posterior axillary lines.

The weakest strength at which a disinfectant still works; for a drug, the lowest blood level that gives the wanted effect.

Removal of the whole breast with the axillary lymph nodes, keeping the chest wall muscles.

An anesthesia service in which an anesthesia provider gives sedation and pain drugs and watches the patient, ready to convert to general anesthesia.

A suture made of a single solid strand.

Describing electrosurgery in which current flows from a small active electrode through the patient's body to a return electrode.

Pairs of wide adhesive straps stuck on each side of a wound and tied together over the dressing, so it can be changed without new tape.

Illness and death taken together: the complications and the deaths that follow a disease, an injury or an operation.

The lining over cartilage that is also covered by mucous membrane, as on each side of the nasal septum.

A suture made of many fine fibers twisted or braided into one strand.

In anesthesia, a neuromuscular blocking drug that relaxes or paralyzes the skeletal muscles, including the muscles of breathing.

The smooth muscle layer of a hollow organ; in the digestive tube, the layer between the submucosa and the serosa that mixes food and moves it along.

Surgery that removes fibroids from the uterus and keeps the uterus in place.

The thick middle layer of smooth muscle in the wall of the uterus, which makes up most of the wall and contracts in labor.

An operation that closes a small hole in the eardrum that will not heal, without entering the middle ear.

A small cut in the eardrum to let fluid drain from the middle ear, usually with a tiny tube placed in the cut to keep it open.