Assisting at Surgical Operations
A Practical Guide

A practical guide to assisting at surgical operations.

There are many superb books on how to do operations but there are few or none on how to assist at them, and none written either by or for medical students or doctors. Therefore, the skills that make an expert surgical assistant are difficult to acquire. Normally, they can only be learnt in a haphazard way, by spending years in the operating theatre. This book describes those skills in a concise and systematic way, in surgery in general, and in ten different speciality areas. Although intended mainly for clinical-level medical students and junior doctors, other people who assist at surgical operations, including general practitioners, nurse assistants and surgical technologists, will also find it useful. Whether planning a career in surgery, or simply aiming for high marks in a surgical rotation, there are few better ways to impress a surgeon than by skilfully assisting at surgical operations.

Foreword Guy Maddern
Preface C. Whalan
Part I. An Introduction to the Operating Theatre: 1. General conduct in the operating theatre suite C. Whalan
2. Universal precautions C. Whalan
3. Clothing in the operating theatre C. Whalan
4. Personnel: who's who in the operating theatre C. Whalan
Part II. The Operation Itself: 5. Preparing for the operation C. Whalan
6. General intra-operative procedures C. Whalan
7. General stages common to all operations
C. Whalan
8. Sterility and the 'sterile zone' C. Whalan
9. Tissue planes, traction and counter-traction C. Whalan
10. Surgical instruments: their names and how to use them C. Whalan
Part III. Assisting at Special Types of Surgery: 11. Cardiothoracic surgery
C. Jurisevic
12. Laparoscopic surgery C. Whalan
13. Neurosurgery A. Abou-Hamden and S. Santoreneos
14. Obstetric and gynaecological surgery A. Swart and E. Atkinson
15. Ophthalmic surgery G. Fraenkel
16. Orthopaedic surgery J. Van Essen
17. Otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery R. Douglas and Peter-John Wormald
18. Paediatric surgery C. Kirby
19. Plastic surgery and microsurgery G. Offer
20. Surgery in difficult circumstances: (1) Rural hospitals M. Bruening
21. Surgery in difficult circumstances: (2) undeveloped countries P. Riddell
22. Vascular surgery: (1) open surgery P. Puckridge
23. Vascular surgery: (2) endovascular surgery K. Phillips and P. Puckridge
Part IV. Immediately after the Operation: 24. Immediately after the operation C. Whalan

Glossary
Suggested further reading
Reference
Index.