-plasty
Meaning of -plasty: Surgery that rebuilds rather than removes, marking an operation whose whole purpose is shape and working function.
Definition of -plasty
The suffix -plasty names a surgical repair that reshapes or rebuilds a structure rather than taking it out. A rhinoplasty reshapes the nose, an arthroplasty rebuilds a joint, an angioplasty widens a narrowed blood vessel. The work may restore a damaged part, correct something malformed from birth, or reopen a passage that has closed down over time.
What sort of operation does it name?
One measured by what the part can do afterward rather than by what was taken away. Removing tissue is often part of the work, but it is a step toward the repair and not the point of it. That is why these operations are judged on function and appearance: whether a rebuilt joint bends and bears weight, whether a widened vessel carries blood again, whether a repaired palate allows normal speech. The same family of techniques underlies reconstruction after injury and after cancer surgery, and much of it belongs to plastic surgery, a name drawn from the same root rather than from any material.
How does it differ from the other repair endings?
Several endings describe surgical repair, and each names a different action performed on the tissue.
| Ending | What the surgeon does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| plasty | reshapes or rebuilds | rhinoplasty |
| pexy | fixes a structure back in position | orchiopexy |
| rrhaphy | stitches a tear or defect | herniorrhaphy |
| desis | fuses two surfaces so they stop moving | arthrodesis |
Where is it seen most often?
In joints, blood vessels and the face. An angioplasty opens a narrowed artery from the inside using a balloon, usually leaving a supporting mesh behind. Arthroplasty replaces or resurfaces a worn joint, and it is the operation offered when a hip or knee has been destroyed by long-standing wear or by rheumatoid arthritis. Repairs of the eyelid, palate, ear and skull share the ending, as do operations that widen a narrowed valve or a scarred section of bowel.
Terms built on -plasty
2 entries in this glossary use this word part. Each one follows the same pattern.
- angioplasty No incision ever reaches the artery: the whole repair travels there through a puncture,…
- balloon angioplasty A narrowed artery reopened from the inside by a balloon threaded to the blockage on a…
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The suffix -plasty indicated that the joint had been rebuilt rather than removed.
Good to know
An operation named with this ending is assessed by the function and appearance of the rebuilt part rather than by how much tissue was removed during it.
Word origin
Where “-plasty” comes from
From the Greek plassein, to mold or shape, and plastos, meaning molded; the same root produced the ordinary word plastic.