Consultant Surgeon on the General and Gastrointestinal Surgery Unit at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, South Australia, with a subspecialty interest in hernia repair. In recent years he has developed an interest in the emerging sub-specialty of Abdominal Wall Reconstruction.

• Preface; Part I. An Introduction to the Operating Theatre: Introduction to the operating theatre Comus Whalan; 1. General conduct in the operating theatre Comus Whalan; 2. Standard precautions Phil Worley and Comus Whalan; 3. Clothing in the operating theatre Comus Whalan; 4. Personnel: who's who in the operating theatre Comus Whalan; Part II. The Operation Itself: 5. Preparing for the operation Comus Whalan; 6. The world health organisation surgical safety checklist Comus Whalan; 7. General intra-operative procedures Comus Whalan; 8. General stages common to operations Comus Whalan; 9. Sterility and the 'sterile zone' Comus Whalan; 10. Tissue planes: traction and counter-traction Comus Whalan; 11. Surgical instruments: their names and how to use them Comus Whalan; 12. Medical lasers and diathermy Darcy Noll, Peter Stapleton and Richard Hoffmann; 13. Radiation safety for surgical assistants Joe Dawson; 14. After the operation – best practice for handling and labelling surgical specimens Marina Yeow; 15. How best to deal with items that are retained in the patient's body Sunil Siri Pathamanathan; 16. Clinical Handover Steven Due; 17. Assisting – a rewarding transition to retirement for surgeons Randal Williams; Part III. Assisting at Special Types of Surgery: 18. Assisting at laparoscopic surgery Comus Whalan; 19. Assisting at robotic surgery Alice Osterwalder and Lilian Kow; 20. Assisting at cardiac electrophysiology and pacing Ivaylo Tonchev and William Heddle; 21. Assisting at gastrointestinal procedures Christopher Rayner; 22. Assisting at cardiothoracic surgery Rohen Skiba, Gareth Crouch and Craig Jurisevic; 23. Assisting at neurosurgery Amal Abou-Hamden, Stephen Santoreneos and Joshua Bizilis; 24. Assisting at obstetric and gynaecological surgery Angelique Swart, Anthia Rallis and Elinor Atkinson; 25. Assisting at ophthalmic surgery Graham Fraenkel and Dev Supramaniam; 26. Assisting at orthopaedic surgery John Van Essen; 27. Assisting at otorhinolaryngology – head and neck surgery Raymond Kim and Peter-John Wormald; 28. Assisting at Paediatric surgery Christopher Kirby; 29. Assisting at Plastic surgery and microsurgery Graham Offer; 30. Assisting at Vascular Surgery: open surgery Angie Arnold and Phil Puckridge; 31. Assisting at Vascular Surgery: endovascular surgery Angie Arnold and Phil Puckridge; 32. Assisting at Surgery in difficult circumstances: rural hospitals Martin Bruening; 33. Assisting at surgery in difficult circumstances: developing Countries Peter Riddell; Part IV. Immediately After the Operation: 34. Immediately after the operation Comus Whalan; Glossary.

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