Glossary
Surgical Assistant Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential surgical assistant terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key surgical assistant vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in surgical assistant training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Cautery
- Using heat to stop bleeding.
- Closure
- Closing the incision.
- Count
- Tracking sponges and instruments.
- Drape
- Sterile cover.
- Exposure
- Making the surgical field visible.
- First assistant
- Primary surgical helper.
- Hemostasis
- Stopping bleeding.
- Laparoscopy
- Minimally invasive surgery.
- Positioning
- Placing patients safely.
- Retraction
- Holding tissue aside.
- Scrub
- Sterile hand and arm cleaning.
- Sterile field
- Germ-free surgical area.
- Suture
- Stitch.
- Time-out
- Pre-surgery safety check.
- Vein harvest
- Removing a vein for a bypass.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Surgical Assistant practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Surgical Assistant training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.