Surgical

A sterile drape with a long U-shaped cut-out at one end, laid so its two tails wrap around a limb, a hip or a shoulder.

A nerve of the brachial plexus that runs down the inner side of the arm, behind the elbow, to the little-finger side of the hand.

An ultra-low penetration air filter, which traps nearly all particles down to about 0.12 micron, as in a smoke evacuator.

A machine that sends high-frequency sound waves through a detergent bath, where collapsing bubbles pull fine soil out of instruments.

A cutting and sealing device whose blade vibrates at ultrasonic speed, coagulating vessels as it cuts with no current through the patient.

A narrow, flat cotton tape passed around a vessel, duct or other structure to lift it and hold it aside.

The Joint Commission's three-step routine for preventing wrong-site, wrong-procedure and wrong-person surgery: verification, site marking and the time-out.

The outer zone of the surgical suite, where street clothes are allowed and traffic is not limited.

Not sterile: carrying, or possibly carrying, living microorganisms, so it must not touch a sterile item or the sterile field.

Looking inside the ureter and renal pelvis with a thin scope passed up through the urethra and bladder, to diagnose and treat stones, narrowings and tumors.

An instrument with a blade that cuts a narrowed, scarred part of the urethra (a stricture) from inside to open it.

One of a pair of bands of tissue that run from the back of the cervix and upper vagina, around each side of the rectum, to the sacrum.

The small, fleshy piece of tissue that hangs from the middle of the back edge of the soft palate, at the back of the mouth.

An operation that removes extra tissue of the uvula and soft palate and tightens the throat to treat sleep apnea and snoring.