Common Surgical Instruments and Scrubbing/Gowning/Gloving Notes

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering common surgical instruments, needle/suture types, and the steps for surgical scrubbing, gowning, and gloving based on the lecture notes.

10 Blade

Used primarily for making large skin incisions, e.g., in laparotomy.

11 Blade

Used for making precise or sharply angled incisions.

15 Blade

Smaller version of #10 blade used for making finer incisions.

Straight Mayo Scissors

Heavy scissors used for cutting suture; also known as "suture scissors."

Curved Mayo Scissors

Heavy scissors used for cutting heavy tissue, such as fascia.

Metzenbaum Scissors

Lighter scissors used for cutting delicate tissue (e.g., heart) and for blunt dissection; also called "Metz" in practice.

Iris Scissors

Used for fine dissection and cutting fine suture; originally designed for ophthalmic procedures.

Tissue Forceps

Non-toothed forceps used for fine handling of tissue and traction during dissection.

Adson Forceps

Forceps toothed at the tip used for handling dense tissue, such as in skin closures.

Bonney Forceps

Heavy forceps used for holding thick tissue (e.g., fascial closure).

DeBakey Forceps

Used for atraumatic tissue grasping during dissection.

Russian Forceps

Used for atraumatic tissue grasping during dissection.

Bandage scissor

Designed for cutting bandages on patients without cutting the patient.

Suture removal scissor

Features a hooked shaped point on one blade used to hook under the stitch before cutting.

Sponge forceps

Used to hold surgical gauze sponges.

Crile Hemostat

Also known as a "snap," it is an atraumatic and nontoothed clamp used to grasp tissue or vessels that will be tied off; also used in blunt dissection.

Kelly Clamp

Larger size variation of hemostat with similar function for grasping larger tissues or vessels.

Kocher Clamp

Traumatic toothed clamp used to hold tissue that will be removed.

Allis and Babcock Clamps

Slightly rounded jaws, both are used for grasping intestine.

Curved needles

Needle shape used in most general surgical procedures.

Straight needles

Needle shape used for skin and subcuticular suturing.

Suture Sizing convention

Sizing is between #5 and #11-0; higher numbers like #3 indicate larger diameter, while more zeros like #4-0 indicate smaller diameter.

Deaver Retractor

Hand-held retractor used to hold back the abdominal wall.

Army-Navy Retractor

Retractor used to gain exposure of skin layers.

Weitlaner Retractor

Self-retaining retractor for exposing deep or smaller surgical sites; also called "Wheaty."

Richardson Retractor

Used to hold back deep tissue structures; also called "Rich."

Bookwalter Retractor

Self-retaining retractor system that is anchored to the operating table.

Towel clamp

Used for fixing drapes to the skin on anesthetized patients.

Needle holder

Often called needle drivers; holds needle firmly without crushing.

Specula and Scopes

Instruments used to expose body orifices by widening for a better view (e.g., Vagina, Nasal, or Anoscope).

Povidone Iodine and Chlorhexidine

Non-irritating cleansing solutions used for the surgical scrub.

Surgical Scrub Duration

The procedure should last for $5$ minutes for the first scrub, with further scrubs during the day lasting $3$ minutes.

Blotting rotational motion

The technique used to dry fingers with one end of the sterile towel during the scrubbing procedure.