In educational psychology, a mental action that can be reversed, organization; reversibility.
Any medical procedure or act performed on the body with instruments or by the hands of a physician or surgeon.
In developmental psychology, those skills and thought processes that are experienced as one grows and develops, concrete operational period.
The way in which something operates.
A surgical procedure carried out to repair or remove a damaged body part.
The way in which a drug acts.
Sometimes an operation is defined as identical with a “surgical procedure.” In general usage, however, the term “operation” is rarely used for a single procedure; the term suggests an event of sufficient magnitude that it requires special preparation of the patient, use of an operating room, assistance to the operator by nurses and often other surgeons, sometimes anesthesia, and postoperative care. The term “procedure,” on the other hand, usually refers to something which is discrete, and for which a relatively short time is required for execution. An operation often actually consists of a number of procedures, and the array of procedures which make up a given operation will vary from patient to patient. For example, cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) for one patient may include “exploration of the common bile duct,” while for another, this procedure may be omitted. For this reason, a proper description of an operation requires that its procedures be listed.
A surgical procedure using instruments or sometimes just the hands; for example, when manipulating a joint or setting a simple fracture. Operations range from simple removal of a small skin lesion under local anaesthetic to a major event such as transplanting a heart, which takes several hours and involves many doctors, nurses and technical staff. Increasingly, operations are done on an outpatient or daybed basis, thus enabling many more patients to be treated than was previously the case, and permitting them to rapidly resume a normal life often within 24 hours.
A surgical procedure is typically performed using specialized tools. However, in some cases, like the adjustment of a straightforward fracture, only the hands might be employed.