Surgical Technology student in New Jersey

[jus2cutie]

Hi, What would you put on Mayo stand for an exploratory laparotomy/small bowel resection? Would you need two or three Mayo's?

Thank you, Iris

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Moved to our Operating Room Nursing forum for member advice.

[premed]

I like to keep things at a minimum. Remember that your back-table is the extension of your Mayo stand and you should not need two or three mayo stands.

I put the following for every small bowel resection:

Babcocks x 2

Allis x 4

Hemostats x 4

Kocher x 2

Metzenbaum scissors x 1

Straight Mayo scissors x 1

Curved Mayo scissors x 1

Medium needle driver x 2

Goulet retractor x 1

Laparatomy sponges x 5

Moist laparotomy sponge to clean instrument x 1

It is always easy to add to your mayo rather than subtract, so keep it to the minimum and PAY ATTENTION to the field so that you can react quickly or anticipate.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I don't routinely do laparotomies/resections, but at my facility, things are kept to a minimum. There is one mayo stand for the majority of the case, which holds sponges, one scalpel, 4 kelly clamps, 4 allis clamps, 2 babcock clamps, scissors, and the most commonly used retractors for that particular surgeon. If the surgeon uses a bookwalter retractor, this is set up on a glove table. However, (and this is new for us) we now set up a second mayo stand after the initial count but prior to incision. This mayo stand holds the instruments that will be used exclusively for incision closure and is isolated from the field until it's time to close- full gown and glove change required as well. I can't even imagine what a third mayo would be used for.