Surgical drape for use in upper extremity operations

Abstract

A surgical drape for use in surgery upon an upper extremity, in which a patient is placed upon an operating room, or OR, table and one of the patient's arms is laid out roughly perpendicular to his or her body on a hand table placed next to one side of the OR table. The drape comprises an OR table portion, formed of fabric, large enough to entirely cover the patient and to have peripheral edges which hang down around the OR table's circumference at least two feet below the table's top surface. The drape also includes a hand table portion, formed of fabric, large enough to cover the top of the hand table and to hang down around all the sides of that table which are not adjacent to the OR table at least one foot below the hand table's top surface. The drape includes-means for joining the OR and hand table portions, so the hand table portion sticks out from a side of the OR table portion. Preferably, the hand table portion is fixedly attached to the OR table portion at least two feet from the edge of the OR table portion, and contains gussets which connect it to the OR table portion at locations nearer to that peripheral edge. This is done so the edges of both the OR and hand table portions are free to hang down toward the floor. The drape also includes an arm hole near where the OR and hand table portion are fixedly connected. This enables the patient's arm to pass through the arm hole and lie on top of hand table portion and the hand table beneath it. Preferably the hand table portion extends out from the middle of one of the long sides of the OR table portion, so that the drape can be used for surgery on either left or right upper extremities.