Surgical

A word ending that means surgical fixing of an organ in place.

The whole, undamaged state of a sterile package's wrapper, seals, locks and dust cover, checked before the package is opened.

Gauze or other soft material placed in a cavity or open wound to help stop bleeding, press on tissue, support the wound or fill dead space.

Post-anesthesia care unit: the area where clients are watched closely as they wake up after surgery.

Surgical repair of the palate, most often to close a cleft palate.

A benign tumor of skin or lining tissue that grows outward in small fingerlike folds.

The agreed amount of each supply an area should have on hand, which staff restock back up to on a schedule.

A stop in the normal movement of the intestines that happens without anything physically blocking them.

A vertical abdominal incision about 2 to 5 cm to one side of the midline, upper or lower, through the rectus sheath.

Four pairs of air-filled spaces in the skull bones around the nose that open into the nasal cavity: frontal, maxillary, ethmoid and sphenoid.

Surgery to remove one or more overactive parathyroid glands, most often a single benign adenoma.

The layer of peritoneum that lines the inside of the abdominal and pelvic walls.

The outer layer of the pleura, which lines the inside of the chest wall, the side of the mediastinum and the top of the diaphragm.

The largest salivary gland, one on each side of the face in front of the ear and over the jaw, which drains into the mouth through the parotid duct.

Surgical removal of part or all of the parotid gland, the salivary gland in front of the ear.

A memory aid for using a fire extinguisher: Pull the pin, Aim at the base of the fire, Squeeze the handle, Sweep the spray side to side.

Closing an opening in a blood vessel by sewing an oval patch into its wall, so the vessel stays wide instead of being narrowed by a straight suture line.

The kneecap: a flat, triangular sesamoid bone in the tendon of the quadriceps on the front of the knee.

The strong band that runs from the bottom of the kneecap to the bump on the front of the tibia, carrying the pull of the quadriceps.

Surgical removal of all or part of the patella (kneecap).

The part of a surgical robot beside the patient that holds the arms, the endoscope and the instruments and takes its orders from the console.

The large adhesive pad that collects electrosurgical current from the patient and carries it back to the generator in monopolar electrosurgery.

A narrow stem or stalk that attaches a structure, such as a tumor or a skin flap, to the body.

A see-through sterilization package with one plastic side and one side of paper or Tyvek, sealed at the edges and peeled open.

Sterile saline poured into the pelvis at the start of a cancer operation and drawn back, then sent to the lab to be checked for cancer cells.

A soft, flat, thin-walled tube that lets fluid drain from a wound into the dressing by gravity, with no reservoir.

A strong oxidizing chemical used to sterilize or high-level disinfect heat-sensitive items, such as scopes, at low temperature.

Through the skin: done by a needle puncture rather than an open incision.

A hole that goes all the way through the wall of an organ or tissue.

A double-glove system with a colored inner glove, so a hole in the outer glove shows up as a spot of color.

The specialist who sets up and runs the heart-lung machine and other devices that pump and oxygenate the blood outside the body.

Surgery that removes a thickened, scarred pericardium that is squeezing the heart.

Relating to the whole time around a surgery: before, during and after it.

A flat-ended instrument with a sharp or blunt edge used to lift the periosteum, the membrane covering bone, off the bone.

The tough fibrous membrane that covers the outside of a bone everywhere except its joint surfaces.

The thin space between the parietal peritoneum on the abdominal wall and the visceral peritoneum on the organs, normally holding only a little fluid.

Tissue fixed in a preservative, usually formalin, and processed onto lasting slides, giving the final pathology diagnosis later.

Having to do with the outer side of the lower leg, near the fibula bone.

A slightly curved, horizontal incision low on the abdomen, just above the pubic bone, used for cesarean births and other pelvic surgery.

Cataract surgery that breaks up the cloudy lens with ultrasonic vibration and suctions it out through a small incision.

A tumor of the chromaffin cells, most often in the adrenal medulla, that releases bursts of epinephrine and norepinephrine.

Using laser or intense light to burn tissue on purpose, to seal leaking vessels or tears in the retina.

The nerve on each side, from the spinal cord in the neck (C3 to C5), that runs down through the chest to make the diaphragm contract.

A long, slender rongeur with small, oval cup jaws, used mainly to pull out disc material in spine surgery and pieces of tumor in brain surgery.

Untreated surgical gut suture, made of collagen from sheep or cattle intestine, that is absorbed quickly and holds for only about 7 to 10 days.

A small pad used in surgery, such as a felt square threaded on a stitch to reinforce it, or a cotton or sponge pad that packs or applies a drug.

A pocket at the edge of a pleural sac where two parts of the parietal pleura lie against each other with no lung between them.

An inflatable cuff on an arm or leg, filled with air by a control unit, that stops blood flow to the limb so surgery has a bloodless field.

Surgery that removes a whole lung.

Gas in the peritoneal cavity, either put there on purpose for laparoscopy or leaking in from a perforated organ.