Perioperative Nursing and Patient Care

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the perioperative continuum, surgical risks, preoperative assessments, legal requirements for consent, and patient education techniques.

Perioperative

The entire span of surgery, including what occurs before, during, and after the actual operation.

Preoperative Phase

The period beginning with the decision to perform surgical intervention and continuing until the client has reached the operating area.

Intraoperative Phase

The duration of the surgical procedure beginning when the patient is transferred onto the OR bed and ending with admission to the PACU or recovery area.

Postoperative Phase

The period beginning with admission to the recovery area and continuing until follow-up evaluation at home or discharge to a rehabilitation unit.

Major Surgery

High-risk, extensive, and prolonged procedures involving a large amount of blood loss and great risk of complications.

Minor Surgery

Procedures that are generally not prolonged, lead to few serious complications, and involve less risk, even if vital organs are handled.

Preoperative Baseline Assessment

An objective clinical standard established before surgery through health history, physical assessment, and psychosocial evaluation used to measure postoperative changes.

Gerontologic Physiological Shifts

Advanced age changes resulting in less physiological reserve within vital organ systems and a narrower margin of safety during surgery.

Bariatric Surgical Risks

Increased cardiorespiratory strain, sleep apnea dynamics, poorly vascularized adipose tissue, and higher risk of wound dehiscence.

Neuroendocrine Stress Response (Diabetes)

The surgical trigger of catecholamine release which drives blood glucose upward, potentially causing hyperglycemia hazards like delayed tissue healing.

Hepatic Dysfunction Risk

Liver disease that impairs the synthesis of essential prothrombin and clotting factors, leading to a high risk for intraoperative bleeding.

Renal Insufficiency Risk

Decreased kidney function that slows the excretion of muscle relaxants and anesthetic metabolites, resulting in prolonged sedation.

Anticoagulants and Antiplatelets

Medications such as warfarin, aspirin, and clopidogrel that must be held prior to surgery to minimize systemic hemorrhage.

Beta-Blockers (Preoperative)

Medications that must not be stopped abruptly to protect the myocardium from ischemia and severe tachycardia during surgical stress.

Corticosteroids (Preoperative)

Drugs that can cause adrenal suppression if taken long-term; stopping them abruptly before surgery can precipitate a life-threatening adrenal crisis.

Preoperative Herbal Supplement Rule

Supplements like garlic, ginkgo, ginseng, and ginger must be held $2$ weeks before surgery due to their antiplatelet properties.

Informed Consent

The legal doctrine requiring a patient's autonomous, voluntary decision to undergo a specific surgical procedure, documented on a legal form.

Civil Battery

The legal classification of surgery performed without a valid, signed informed consent form.

Surgeon's Duty (Consent)

The sole responsibility for explaining the operation's purpose, benefits, alternatives, and explicit risks.

Nurse's Role (Consent)

Acting as a formal witness to the physical signature, validating that the signature is authentic and the patient is competent and voluntary.

Pulmonary Aspiration Consequences

Regurgitated acidic gastric contents causing chemical burns to lung tissue, chemical pneumonitis, severe hypoxia, and acute respiratory failure.

Standard NPO Thresholds

Minimum fast of $2$ hours for clear liquids, $6$ hours for a light meal, and $8$ hours for heavy or fatty foods.

Anxiolytics and Sedatives

Benzodiazepines like midazolam used to reduce preoperative anxiety and provide anterograde amnesia.

Anticholinergics (Preoperative)

Medications like glycopyrrolate used to reduce pharyngeal secretions to prevent laryngospasm during intubation.

GI Histamine-2 Antagonists

Drugs like famotidine that increase gastric pH to minimize lung tissue damage in the event of micro-aspiration.

Prophylactic Antibiotics

Medications infused completely within $60$ minutes prior to surgical incision to ensure peak tissue sterilization.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

A technique involving the flattening of the dome of the diaphragm during inspiration to enlarge the abdomen, practiced $15$ times with rests after groups of $5$, twice daily.

Cough Splinting

Interlacing fingers and placing hands across the incision site for support while coughing to help clear secretions without harming the incision.