Surgical positioning

Surgical positioning is a very important aspect of caring for the patient intraoperatively. All surgical team members must work together to safely move and secure the patient to adequately expose the surgical site. The type of surgical position, anesthesia used and the patient's health status continue to be factors which contribute to optimizing the patient's outcome and preventing complications. It is imperative that perioperative nurses understand and are competent in utilizing principles of anatomy and physiology, knowledge of effects of medications and anesthetics, critical assessment skills and appropriate positioning techniques and equipment used during orthopaedic surgical procedures to render quality intraoperative care.