Three Specimens From One Case

In practice

During a breast cancer operation, the surgeon removes the main tumor, then two lymph nodes, one from higher in the armpit and one from lower down, and asks for a culture swab from a small area that looks infected. Lee, the scrub person, has four labelled containers ready on the back table, each labelled with the patient's name and with space for the description. When the tumor is removed, the surgeon places marking stitches on two of its edges and tells Lee which edge is which; Lee writes the orientation on the label and passes the container to the circulating nurse, saying what it is and what the marks mean. Each lymph node comes out separately; Lee places each in its own container, labels it with its location before accepting the next, and passes each off one at a time. The culture swab is collected with sterile technique and handed off in its own labelled container. Nothing is left in an unlabelled cup on the back table. At the end of the case, the circulating nurse reads each label aloud: the patient's name, the specimen, its site and its orientation marks, and the surgeon confirms each one.