Introduction to Surgery
- Definition of surgery
- Invasive nature of surgery
- Types of surgery (elective, semi-elective, emergency, exploratory, therapeutic)
- Types of surgical procedures (amputation, resection, excision, repair, grafting)
- Surgical specialties (cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, vascular surgery, urological surgery)
- Degree of invasiveness in surgery (conventional open surgery, minimally invasive procedures, ablation, reconstruction, transplantation)
Surgical Techniques and Procedures
- Minimally invasive surgical procedures (smaller incisions, laser surgery, cryosurgery, electrosurgery, microsurgery, endoscopic surgery, robotic surgery)
- Terminology of surgical procedures (excision surgery, cutting into an organ or tissue, minimally invasive procedures, formation of a permanent or semi-permanent opening, reconstruction/plastic/cosmetic surgery, repair of damaged or abnormal structure, reoperation or redo)
- Description of surgical procedure (location of surgery, modern surgery in an operating theater, principles of aseptic technique, operating room staff requirements, importance of aseptic technique to prevent infections)
Preoperative Care
- Medical examination and pre-operative tests
- ASA physical status classification system
- Consent form and surgical clearance
- Autologous blood donation and bowel prep
- Preoperative fasting and controversy over unnecessary tests
Staging and Intraoperative Phase
- Importance of the pre-operative holding area and information sharing
- Changing into surgical attire and confirming surgery details
- Recording vital signs, placing a peripheral IV line, and administering pre-operative medications
- Cleaning and preparing the operating field
- Sterile draping of the surgical site and separation of the anesthetist/anesthesiologists' area from the sterile field
- Intraoperative phase (incision, clamping/cauterizing blood vessels, use of retractors, approach to surgical site)
Postoperative Care
- Transfer to post-anesthesia care unit
- Assessment of general function and outcome
- Checking surgical site for signs of infection
- Risk factors for postoperative complications
- Postoperative therapy (chemotherapy, radiation therapy, medication)
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and/or instrumental techniques to physically reach into a subject's body in order to investigate or treat pathological conditions such as a disease or injury, to alter bodily functions (e.g. bariatric surgery such as gastric bypass), to improve appearance (cosmetic surgery), or to remove/replace unwanted tissues (body fat, glands, scars or skin tags) or foreign bodies. The subject receiving the surgery is typically a person (i.e. a patient), but can also be a non-human animal (i.e. veterinary surgery).
The act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure or operation, or simply "surgery". In this context, the verb "operate" means to perform surgery. The adjective surgical means pertaining to surgery; e.g. surgical instruments, surgical facility or surgical nurse. Most surgical procedures are performed by a pair of operators: a surgeon who is the main operator performing the surgery, and a surgical assistant who provides in-procedure manual assistance during surgery. Modern surgical operations typically require a surgical team that typically consists of the surgeon, the surgical assistant, an anaesthetist (often also complemented by an anaesthetic nurse), a scrub nurse (who handles sterile equipment), a circulating nurse and a surgical technologist, while procedures that mandate cardiopulmonary bypass will also have a perfusionist. All surgical procedures are considered invasive and often require a period of postoperative care (sometimes intensive care) for the patient to recover from the iatrogenic trauma inflicted by the procedure. The duration of surgery can span from several minutes to tens of hours depending on the specialty, the nature of the condition, the target body parts involved and the circumstance of each procedure, but most surgeries are designed to be one-off interventions that are typically not intended as an ongoing or repeated type of treatment.
In common colloquialism, the term "surgery" can also refer to the facility where surgery is performed, or, in British English, simply the office/clinic of a physician, dentist or veterinarian.
