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276 Tasks for the Veterinary Assistant

(a) (c) (d)

(b) (e)

FIGURE 14.41 Opening a surgical pack.

as a sterilized scrub brush will be appreciated. Meanwhile,
the surgical packs can be opened. Great care is needed
again to not touch or reach across the sterile fields of the
open packs. Figure 14.41a–e are the steps to aseptically
open surgical packs. Remove the autoclave tape com-
pletely from the pack (Figure 14.41a). Either ball it up
and put it in your pocket or stick it to your hip, to be
thrown away later. If you stick on yourself make sure to
do it low enough so that it doesn’t fall onto a sterile field.
Grasp the cloth tab (Figure 14.41b) on the pack and
pull, until it comes completely out of the fold, then swing
your arm back to open that fold all the way (Figure 14.41c).
Now the reason for making sure the corners of the wraps
point out becomes apparent (Figure 14.41d) as they are
clearly visible, and your bare hand is as far from the
center of the pack as possible. Pinch or pick the corner
up on the very point between index finger and thumb
and open that fold all the way. Continue until the entire
pack has been open. As you can see this was a gown
pack, folded neatly with a towel on top but there is a
problem with this pack. Can you spot the issue? Should FIGURE 14.42 Opening an auxiliary pack.
the sterilization indicator be on top of the material
(Figure 14.41e)? No, it needs to be in the middle of all material, scalpel blades, and the individually packed
that fabric! We don’t know if this pack was truly sterile all instruments in the auxiliary packaging. They are opened
the way through, so it needs to be changed out for a dif- by placing both thumbs along the flaps and rolling
ferent one that has the indicator in the correct location. your hands apart. Don’t abruptly tear the flaps apart as
When in doubt consider an item contaminated! Open the sur- the material inside may go flying! Neither should you
gical pack but just the outer most wrap. Do not touch or rip the packaging haphazardly causing a potential for
open the inside wrap. That is for the scrubbed, gowned, contamination.
and gloved surgeon to open. This is to prevent any Suture packs and scalpel blades are prepackaged and
chance that the instruments used on the inside of the require a bit of skill to determine what it is the surgeon
patient are contaminated. requires. If you know what to look for it is easy enough.
Auxiliary packs are opened upon request of the sur- In Figure 14.43 there are two kinds of suture material in
geon (Figure 14.42). This includes gloves, suture different sizes and a box of scalpel blades. Note the