Editing Surgery (section)

{{short description|Medical procedures that involve incisive or invasive instruments into body cavities}}
{{About|the medical specialty}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{multiple image
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| footer = Surgeons conducting operations
| image1 = Cardiac surgery operating room.jpg
| image2 = Нейрохирургическая операция в Институте Склифосовского.jpg
}}

'''Surgery'''{{efn|From the {{langx|el|χειρουργική}} ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via {{langx|la|chirurgiae}}, meaning "hand work"}} is a [[medical specialty]] that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat [[pathological]] conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by [[bariatric surgery]] such as [[gastric bypass]]), to reconstruct or alter aesthetics and appearance ([[cosmetic surgery]]), or to remove unwanted [[tissue (biology)|tissue]]s ([[body fat]], [[gland]]s, [[scar]]s or [[skin tag]]s) or [[foreign bodies]].

The act of performing surgery may be called a '''surgical procedure''' or '''surgical operation''', or simply "surgery" or "operation". In this context, the verb "operate" means to perform surgery. The adjective '''surgical''' means pertaining to surgery; e.g. [[surgical instrument]]s, [[operating theater|surgical facility]] or [[surgical nurse]]. Most surgical procedures are performed by a pair of operators: a [[surgeon]] who is the main operator performing the surgery, and a [[surgical assistant]] who provides in-procedure manual assistance during surgery. Modern surgical operations typically require a '''surgical team''' that typically consists of the surgeon, the surgical assistant, an [[anaesthetist]] (often also complemented by an [[anaesthetic nurse]]), a [[scrub nurse]] (who handles [[asepsis|sterile]] equipment), a [[circulating nurse]] and a [[surgical technologist]], while procedures that mandate [[cardiopulmonary bypass]] will also have a [[perfusionist]]. All surgical procedures are considered ''invasive'' and often require a period of ''postoperative'' care (sometimes [[intensive care]]) for the patient to recover from the [[iatrogenic]] trauma inflicted by the procedure. The duration of surgery can span from several minutes to tens of hours depending on the [[specialty (medicine)|specialty]], the nature of the condition, the target [[wikt:body part|body part]]s involved and the circumstance of each procedure, but most surgeries are designed to be one-off interventions that are typically not intended as an ongoing or repeated type of treatment.

In British colloquialism, the term "surgery" can also refer to the facility where surgery is performed, or simply the [[doctor's office|office]]/[[clinic]] of a [[physician]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/doctors-surgery|title=Doctor's surgery|dictionary=Collins English Dictionary|access-date=10 February 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210062151/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/doctors-surgery|archive-date=10 February 2018|df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[dentist]] or [[veterinarian]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTJbAAAAcAAJ |title=The Medical times: a journal of medical science, literature, criticism, and news. 1845/46, Sept. - Apr. |date=1846 |language=en}}</ref>