The surgeon is responsible for the overall management of the patient's diagnosis and treatment and the operational steps of the procedure.

Resident

Common endoscopic procedures require an assistant. His or her primary responsibility is to retract and manipulate the tissue to provide adequate exposure for the surgeon.

The resident must have intimate knowledge of the procedure performed, anatomy and physiology, and tissue handling skills.

If the resident is experienced, he or she may perform the surgery while the attending guides the resident.

Medical Student

Primarily present as an educational opportunity to learn about the surgical treatment of a disease process.

In addition, the medical student often assists by retracting or driving the camera.

Scrub Nurse

The scrub nurse is responsible for assembling and preparing the sterile field, e.g., the scope, the camera head cable, the light guide, and all surgical instruments.

The sterile instruments must be arranged on the back table and the Mayo stand in a way that facilitates easy access to equipment and does not directly interfere with the movement of the surgical team.

It is important that the instrument nurse follow the progress of the procedure closely and anticipate the surgeon's needs for instrumentation, irrigation, and suctioning.

The Circulating Nurse

The circulating nurse is in charge of all tasks outside of the sterile surgical field. This nurse is assigned to the patient and is responsible of taking care of patient's needs.

Anesthesiology Team

The anesthesiologist is positioned at the patient's head.

With the assistance of the circulator, the anesthesiologist positions the patient, inserts the intravenous lines, attaches the monitoring equipment, induces anesthesia and intubates the patient, and monitors the patient's vital signs.

Camera Operator

It is the camera operator's responsibility to keep the camera oriented and focused correctly and to troubleshoot problems with the camera head.

Operator could be the surgeon, resident, or medical student.

Camera operators must have steady hands, good concentration, and good spatial orientation.

They must understand the procedure and be able to follow the surgeon' s instruments to give the best possible view of the operative site, while keeping the instruments in view.

Even the slightest tremor can cause the monitor image to waver significantly.

Click here to learn how to drive the camera.