Surgical

A soft tube passed through a nostril to the back of the nose, so the tongue cannot block the airway.

The National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting, which awards and renews the CST and CSFA credentials.

The National Center for Competency Testing, a certifying agency that awards the TS-C credential to surgical technologists.

A neodymium: yttrium aluminum garnet crystal laser with an invisible 1064 nm beam that reaches deepest and coagulates best of the surgical lasers.

An operation that removes the lymph nodes of the neck, with the fat around them, for cancer of the head and neck.

A fast-spreading bacterial infection of the fascia and the tissue around it that kills tissue as it goes; the "flesh-eating" infection.

A ringed, ratcheted instrument with short, strong jaws that grips a curved suture needle so the surgeon can drive it through tissue.

An abnormal new growth of tissue, a tumor, which may be benign or malignant.

A drug that blocks the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, so nerve signals to muscles get stronger.

Surgery to remove a kidney, all of it or part of it.

An injection of local anesthetic around a nerve or a group of nerves that numbs the area they supply.

A device that sends small electrical pulses to a nerve and watches the muscle it supplies twitch, to measure muscle relaxation or to find a nerve.

A drug that blocks signals from nerves to skeletal muscles, so the muscles relax completely and cannot move.

A set spot on the sterile field where sharps are put down and picked up, so two people never hold the same sharp at once.

The National Fire Protection Association, which writes fire safety codes and standards, health care included.

A cylinder of compressed nitrogen, with a regulator and hose, that powers pneumatic instruments such as drills and saws.

A colorless inhaled anesthetic gas with good pain relief, too weak to be the only anesthetic, so it is mixed with other agents.

The space around a laser in use where the direct, reflected or scattered beam is above the safe exposure limit for the eyes or skin.

Suture that the body does not break down, so it stays in place, walled off by fibrous tissue, or is removed later.

Not sticking to a wound, as a dressing contact layer that lets drainage pass and comes off without pulling tissue.

A normal body temperature; for surgical patients, a core temperature of at least 36°C (96.8°F).

The specialty that uses radioactive materials to diagnose and treat disease, by tracing the radiation they give off inside the body.

A strong synthetic nonabsorbable suture, most often a smooth monofilament, used to close skin and, in its finest sizes, in eye surgery and microsurgery.