Plain-English explanations of the technical terms and legislation used in this document.
- Aseptic non-touch technique (ANTT)
- A way of working that keeps the parts of equipment which will touch the wound completely untouched, so germs are not carried in.
- Aspirating
- Pulling back on the syringe before injecting to check the needle is not in a blood vessel.
- Crush artefact
- Damage to tissue caused by squeezing it with instruments, which can make it impossible to examine properly.
- Gauge
- The thickness of a suture thread.
- Haemostasis
- Stopping the bleeding.
- Margin
- The border of normal-looking skin taken out around a lesion.
- Neutral zone
- An agreed place on the trolley where sharps are put down and picked up, so they are never passed hand to hand.
- Orientation suture
- A stitch marking a known point on a specimen so the laboratory can say which edge is which.
- Relaxed skin tension lines
- The natural creases of the skin; cutting along them usually gives a neater scar.
- Resheath
- Putting the cover back on a used needle, which is prohibited because it causes injuries.
- Wrong-site procedure
- Operating on the wrong place on the body, or on the wrong lesion.