Glossary

The glossary explains technical terms used in the clinical guideline recommendations.

ASA I-II

American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification System:

  • I - a normal healthy patient;
  • II - a patient with mild systemic disease.

Carer

An individual who provides unpaid care as opposed to paid carers (for example, care workers).

Child

A child or young person between zero and 18 years.

Clear fluid

A fluid through which it is possible to read newsprint.

Evidence-based

The process of systematically finding, appraising and using research findings as the basis for clinical decisions.

Evidence-based clinical practice

Evidence-based clinical practice involves making decisions about the care of individual patients, based upon the best available research evidence, rather than on personal opinion or common practice (which may not always be evidence-based). Evidence-based clinical practice involves integrating individual clinical expertise and patient preferences with the best available evidence from research.

Health professional

Includes nurses, allied health professionals, doctors.

Infant

A child less than one year old.

Intervention

A health care action intended to benefit the patient, for example, drug treatment, psychological therapy.

Meta-analysis

A statistical method of summarising the results from a group of similar studies

pH

Negative logarithm to base 10 of the hydrogen ion concentration.As pH increases the acidity decreases. pH ranges from zero (most acidic) to 14.

Premedication

Drug therapy given to prepare the patient for anaesthesia and operation. The main aim of prescribing premedication is to prevent stress-induced physiological reactions.

Randomisation

Method used to generate a random allocation sequence, such as using tables of random numbers or computergenerated random sequences.

Randomised (controlled) trial

A clinical trial in which the treatments are randomly assigned to participants. The random allocation eliminates bias in the assignment of treatment to patients and establishes the basis for statistical analyses.

Standard fast

Fasting from food and drink from midnight for a morning operating session or 6am for an afternoon session. In infants, the standard fast may mean the normal feed is allowed up to four hours preoperatively.

Systematic review

A review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included.

User

Anyone using the guideline.

This glossary is partially based on: