Question

1. Pearl Richards, 69 years of age, is a female patient who is in the operating room for a repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The patient has a history of hypertension controlled with medications, osteoporosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and has smoked two packs of cigarettes per day for 40 years. (Learning Objectives 2, 6, and 9)        

What nursing interventions are instituted to reduce the surgical risk factors related to the patient’s age?

Explain the role of the nurse in providing patient safety measures during the intraoperative period.

Answer 1

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Although several risk factors for postoperative morbidity and mortality increase with age, increasing age itself remains an important risk factor for postoperative morbidity and mortality. The nursing interventions include make sure that cessation of smoking is implemented in patient prior to surgery and maintenance of blood pressure and respiratory problems. Also make sure that patients history about COPD is considered while surgery.

* Intraoperative care is patient care during an operation and ancillary to that operation.

Activities such as monitoring the patient's vital signs, bloodoxygenation levels, fluid therapy, medication transfusion, anesthesia, radiography, and retrieving samples for laboratory tests, are examples of intraoperative care. Intraoperative care is provided by nurses, anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, surgical technicians, surgeons, and residents, all working as a team.

ome of the goals of intraoperative care include maintaining homeostasis during the procedure, maintaining strict sterile techniques to decrease the chance of cross-infection, ensuring that the patient is secure on the operating table, and taking measures to prevent hematomas from safety strips or from positioning.