Surgical

A 1990 US law that gave the FDA more power over medical devices and requires facilities to report devices that may have caused harm.

A nonconductive holder fixed to the drapes where the electrosurgical pencil is kept whenever it is not in use.

A padded strap across the patient's thighs that keeps the patient from falling off the OR table or stretcher.

Surgical removal of a fallopian tube and its ovary, on one side or on both.

Either of the two main superficial veins of the leg; the great saphenous runs up the inner leg and thigh to the femoral vein in the groin.

Small clips clamped along the cut edges of the scalp in a craniotomy to stop bleeding; the most common are Raney clips.

A small, very sharp surgical knife.

The disposable cutting blade of a scalpel, numbered by its shape and size and fitted to a matching knife handle.

The largest nerve in the body, which runs from the lower spine through the buttock and down the back of the thigh to serve the leg and foot.

A piece of silicone sewn onto the sclera over a retinal tear, pushing the eye wall in against the detached retina.

The sterile team member, most often a surgical technologist, who sets up and runs the sterile field; also the surgical hand antisepsis done before gowning.

Healing of a wound left open, which fills in slowly from its base with granulation tissue, contracts and leaves a wider scar.

A second, separately draped Mayo stand kept for one part of a case, such as the open bowel or a tumor, so its instruments stay apart from the clean setup.

The spread of cancer cells from a tumor to healthy tissue, as when instruments, gloves or fluid carry them during surgery.

A retractor that holds a wound open by itself with a ratchet, crank, spring or frame, so no one has to hold it.

The saddle-shaped hollow on top of the sphenoid bone, in the floor of the skull, that holds the pituitary gland.

Letting some air and moisture vapor through while keeping out liquid and germs, as a dressing does; also called semipermeable.

One of a pair of glands behind the bladder that make most of the fluid in semen, rich in the sugar fructose.

The middle zone of the surgical suite, entered only in surgical attire with the hair covered, that leads to the operating rooms.

An operation that straightens a deviated nasal septum so air flows freely through both sides of the nose.

Wrapping an item for sterilization in two separate wraps, one after the other, so it is a package inside a package.

A pocket of serous fluid, the clear to pale yellow fluid part of the blood, that collects in a wound or under the skin after surgery or injury.

A serous membrane; in the digestive tube, the outermost layer of the wall, made of visceral peritoneum over loose connective tissue.

A row of small tooth-like ridges, such as the grooves on the jaws of a surgical clamp.

A volatile liquid general anesthetic, breathed in as a vapor, gentle on the airway and the usual agent for putting children to sleep by mask.

Items that can cut or puncture skin, such as suture and hypodermic needles, scalpel blades, electrosurgical tips, saw blades and pins.

A force that pulls the skin out of place when the skin is held still while the body under it slides.

How long a product can be stored and still be safe and work; for sterile packages, how long they stay sterile.

A join made between openings cut in the sides of two tubular structures laid parallel, such as two loops of bowel, so contents pass from one to the other.

The S-shaped last part of the colon, in the pelvis, between the descending colon and the rectum.

A rigid or flexible scope passed through the anus to examine the rectum and sigmoid colon.

An examination of the inside of the rectum and the sigmoid colon with a lighted scope passed through the anus.

A natural nonabsorbable suture braided or twisted from the fibers silkworms spin, valued for easy handling and secure knots.

Wrapping an item for sterilization once in a double-layer sheet whose two layers are bonded at the edges.

A long grasping forceps with one sharp, inward-curved prong on each jaw, used to grip and steady the cervix.

A medical device its maker labels to be used on one patient during one procedure and then thrown away.

A narrow channel that leads from a pocket of infection, such as an abscess, inside the body out to the surface, where it drains.

Marking the place on the skin where an operation will be done, before surgery, so the team cannot operate on the wrong side, site or level.

The six checks AST and the Core Curriculum use for every drug: right patient, drug, dose, route, time and documentation.

A liquid glue, usually a cyanoacrylate, painted over skin edges held together to close a wound without sutures.

Skin taken from one place and moved to cover a wound elsewhere, where it picks up a new blood supply from the wound bed.

Cleaning the skin over and around the surgical site with an antiseptic just before draping, to bring its germs down to the fewest possible.

A handheld, usually disposable device that closes the skin by placing one metal staple across the incision edges with each squeeze.

A machine that pulls surgical smoke away from the field through a wand or tube and cleans it through filters.

A long, slender, smooth instrument passed into a body cavity or canal to measure its depth or to stretch it open.

Knowing at every moment where the sterile and nonsterile people, surfaces and items around you are, so you never touch or brush the wrong one.

A fine, side-cutting suture needle with a thin, flat profile, used mainly in eye surgery on the cornea and sclera.

A system that sorts patient-care items into critical, semicritical and noncritical by their infection risk, to set how each must be processed.

Groups of patients whose age, body or condition calls for extra planning and care in surgery, such as children, older adults and patients with obesity.

The form, paper or electronic, that goes with a specimen to the lab and says whose it is, what it is and what test is wanted.