operating lists
Last reviewed 01/2018
Operating lists can often cause much heartache for the house surgeon. Points to be remembered are as follows:
- often the surgeon will have preferences about the order of the patients. General the principles are as follows:
- old before young adults
- underlying disease, especially diabetes, before fit
- clean before dirty - i.e. abscess excision or similar
- larger operations usually before smaller
- the person who submits and signs the list takes the responsibility for any errors on that list. Thus abbreviations should be avoided - left and right must be written in full and ditto marks avoided.
- for last minute changes to lists there are a variety of people to inform, including the surgeon, the theatre, the anaesthetist and the ward. Failure to inform any of these results in large amounts of confusion.