Surgery is any treatment that involves cutting or penetrating the body’s tissues. All surgeries have benefits, risks and side effects. Your doctor should explain these clearly.
Some operations are done to find a problem, such as a biopsy or to stop bleeding after an accident. Others are done to treat a disease or improve a health condition. Contact Copper Mountain Surgical now!
You’ll be given medicine to keep you comfortable and pain-free during surgery or other medical procedures. This medicine is called anesthesia. There are four different types of anesthesia: general, spinal, regional, and local. You and your physician anesthesiologist will decide which is best for you.
During surgery, you’ll be connected to machines that monitor your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. The anesthesia team will also watch you closely to make sure the anesthesia is working as it should.
Before sedating medications are given, the anesthesia provider will ask you to verify your identity and the type of procedure you’re having. This helps prevent mistakes, such as giving you the wrong type of anesthesia.
The anesthesia team will give you the sedating medication through a vein in your arm or by mouth. It takes about 20 minutes for the anesthesia to take effect. Once the anesthesia is in place, you will be taken to the operating room for your procedure.
During surgery you won’t feel any pain and won’t remember the operation or any of it. This is because the anesthesia makes you completely unconscious. It’s important that you lie as still as possible during your surgery. This allows the anesthesia to work more effectively.
While you’re under anesthesia, the surgical team will clean and prepare the area where they plan to operate. They’ll also put in a tube in your throat to help you breathe. The tube will be removed when you’re ready to wake up.
General anesthesia is used for major surgeries and other medical procedures. It puts you into a deep sleep that lasts throughout the operation. You can’t feel any pain during this time. It’s very safe. But general anesthesia can cause problems like low blood pressure, nausea, and vomiting.
Regional anesthesia is used for some surgeries of the arms, legs, or abdomen. It numbs the area, but you’re awake and aware. Local anesthesia is used for smaller procedures, such as getting stitches or having a mole removed. It numbs only a small area, and you’re awake but alert.
Preparation
Surgical site infections (SSI) occur in one third of patients who have undergone surgery and are the second most common healthcare-associated infection.1 SSIs are preventable and can be decreased through appropriate organ function support, skin preparation, antimicrobial prophylaxis and proper wound care.
Generally, before surgery, an extensive history and physical examination is conducted to evaluate the patient’s overall health status and preoperatively assessed for risk of complications from surgery and related medications. The ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) grading system is an easy-to-use and prospective description of the patient’s general physical condition and correlates well with the risk of anesthesia and surgery.1
In addition, a brief preoperative evaluation is often done to determine the need for blood and clotting factor replacement, insertion of an arterial line, urinary drainage catheter and/or sizable peripheral intravenous lines and in some cases mild hyperventilation may be recommended.
The surgeon may prepare the skin with a variety of agents including chlorhexidine, povidone-iodine scrub and paint or a combination of these to reduce bacteria on the skin surface that could serve as an inoculum for the incisional wound infection and seeding into deeper tissues.42
Preparation for survival surgery requires careful planning on the part of the research and veterinary staff to optimize the environment and minimize traffic in order to maintain aseptic conditions during the surgical procedure. This includes the selection and preparation of animal models for the particular experiment, sterile surgical attire, a properly designed operating room, the use of sterile gloves during surgery, and the control of bacterial contamination on the animal through draping and traffic control.
A nurse or care team member will call you a few days before surgery and give you specific instructions about what to eat and drink, visitor guidelines and your arrival time for surgery. Most patients will need to arrive at the hospital about an hour prior to their scheduled surgery time to allow adequate time for surgical prep and preparation for anesthesia. Patients should bring reading material or music to pass the time while waiting for their surgery to start. They also can bring a personal item to hold while they are in the recovery area, such as a stuffed animal or blanket.
Surgery
Surgery is the medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose and treat pathological conditions (such as cancer, injury, or disease), alter bodily function (such as by rerouting tubular structures like blood vessels, creating a gastrointestinal bypass, or replacing an organ), improve aesthetics and/or functionality, or remove unwanted tissues or foreign bodies. It can be performed on humans, animals, or even plants, and it can be elective, meaning that it is done for a non-life-threatening condition, or it can be emergency, or ambulatory, meaning that it is performed in an outpatient setting.
Before a person undergoes surgery, he or she must sign an informed consent form. The doctor must explain the operation and answer any questions that the patient may have. Informed consent is especially important for vulnerable populations such as incarcerated persons, people with dementia and/or mental incompetence, or those who are subject to coercion, whose ability to give informed consent may be limited.
The surgical team must also clearly mark the operative site with an indelible pen or marker, and then make a checklist using the person’s records, imaging studies, and the informed-consent form. The team members must then verbally verify among themselves the correct site of the operation. They must also confirm that they know who the person is by asking his or her name and checking his or her hospital identification bracelet. They must also ensure that they have the right person’s surgical history and check whether the patient has any allergies to medication.
During surgery, asepsis must be maintained by preventing contamination by pathogenic microorganisms. This requires that all instruments, dry goods and clothing that come into contact with the surgical field be sterilized by steam or chemicals, while the surgeon and his or her staff wash their hands and forearms with antiseptic soap and wear disposable plastic gowns and caps. Dedicated air, water and light sources must be used to ensure that the operating room is free from contaminants.
Visualization is an essential element of computer-assisted surgery because surgeons must display the acquired information from multiple sources, such as imaging modalities, medical device monitoring systems and guidance and navigation solutions. In order to optimize surgery planning, it is critical that only relevant information is displayed, so that the surgeon can dynamically monitor the surgical situation and adjust plans accordingly.
Recovery
A patient will spend a few hours in the recovery room (also known as a PACU or post-anesthesia care unit) after surgery while the anesthesia wears off. This is when staff monitors blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation and urine output. They may also test for an allergic reaction to the anesthesia. Once medically stable, a patient is either discharged home — if the surgery was outpatient — or moved to their hospital room if staying overnight.
When you are discharged from the hospital, it’s important to follow all of your doctor’s instructions for healing and recovery. This could include resting, taking your medications and following dietary and exercise guidelines. Your physician will also check your surgical site for infection, removing stitches or staples as needed and changing bandages when necessary.
The recovery process is a time when many patients feel emotional, lonely or anxious due to the changes they are experiencing. It is helpful for patients to seek support from friends and family during this time and to focus on the positive aspects of their recovery, such as resuming daily activities or getting back to their normal lifestyle.
Your doctor will discuss your expectations for recovery with you before your surgery and provide a list of things that you can do to speed the process along. This includes staying hydrated, eating nutritious meals and snacks and taking short walks to stimulate your legs and feet. High-fiber foods, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, are particularly good for preventing constipation, which can be a complication of some surgical procedures.
Depending on the type of surgery you have, you will be encouraged to take deep breaths using the full diaphragm and abdomen and to cough to remove chest secretions. It’s also important to move around and change positions frequently in your bed, especially when lying flat because this encourages deeper breathing and helps relieve pressure areas.
You will likely need to have a friend or family member drive you home after your surgery and escort you on public transportation, especially if you’ve had anesthesia. Make arrangements for this ahead of time and ask your loved ones to help out for a few days after you get home.