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Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly

Contact Congress Over Drug Shortage Issues

A Kentucky congressman is urging surgical facilities to contact their members of Congress and request that they sign his letter demanding changes to...

N.J. Posts ASC Inspection Reports Online

State and federal inspection reports of New Jersey's ASCs are now available online, giving patients an opportunity to make more informed choices abo...

Are Opioids Necessary?

While it's not always practical, or even possible, to eliminate opioids from your post-op pain management regiment, reducing their use in favor of n...

Archive >  Abdominal Surgery 2007

Your Refresher on ESU Safety

Five tried and true steps to prevent laparoscopic electrosurgical burns.

Vangie Dennis, RN, CNOR, CMLSO

The possibility of potentially fatal stray electrosurgical burns exists every time one of your surgeons opts for the versatility and efficacy of monopolar electrosurgery. It shouldn't happen, but too many patients suffer each year from complications ranging from pain to death (see "Statistics That May Shock You"). But it's easy sometimes to forget just how dangerous routinely used equipment can be. With that in mind, here's a refresher on safe electrosurgery.

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Categories: General Surgery, Safety, Electrosurgery
Keywords:
1 Watch for breakdowns.; 2 Perform an electrical insulation scan.; 3 Use active electrode shielding technology.; 4 Take intraoperative precautions.; Clean; EtO; Im-mediately; Insulation; ORs; Perform; Visually; Watch; activation; active; ago; alarms; assess; automatically; bowel; break; breakdown; breaks; brightly; burn; capacitive; capacitor; catches; chance; close; closely; colored; complications; concentrate; conductors; continuously; conventional; coupling; cracks; current; cycles; dangerous; death; decrease; deeper; defects; degradation; detect; determined; detrimental; dispose; duty; eas... show all keywords
1 Watch for breakdowns.; 2 Perform an electrical insulation scan.; 3 Use active electrode shielding technology.; 4 Take intraoperative precautions.; Clean; EtO; Im-mediately; Insulation; ORs; Perform; Visually; Watch; activation; active; ago; alarms; assess; automatically; bowel; break; breakdown; breaks; brightly; burn; capacitive; capacitor; catches; chance; close; closely; colored; complications; concentrate; conductors; continuously; conventional; coupling; cracks; current; cycles; dangerous; death; decrease; deeper; defects; degradation; detect; determined; detrimental; dispose; duty; easier; easy; efficacy; electrical; electrode; electrosurgical; eliminated; energy; enhance; equipment; eschar; exists; factors; fails; failure; fatal; forget; function; generator; harsh; hybrid; including; inspect; instrument; instruments; insulation; insulatoin; intact; intraoperative; intraoperatively; layers; leakage; leaked; limit; majority; make; manufacturer's; method; monitors; monopolar; naked; non-target; opts; order; pain; passes; path; patient; patients; perforation; performing; perioperatively; phenomena; pilot; placement; possibility; potentially; present; preserve; prevent; prevents; processing; protective; quickly; ranging; refresher; replace; resistance; result; return; reusable; routinely; safe; safely; safer; saved; scan; scanners; schedule; separated; set; shielding; single-use; smallest; spot; steps; sterilization; stick; stray; suffer; surgeons; surgery; system; tears; technology; tend; test; time; tip; tissue; touching; transfer; transition; trocar; type; versatility; visible; visual; worn-out; written; year

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