Procedure and Surgery Terms
Medical procedures, operations, interventions, and routes used to access the body. Browse definitions and meanings below.
How are operations named?
Most operation names are built rather than invented. A root names the body part and an ending names what was done to it, so the name of an unfamiliar procedure can usually be worked out from its parts.
Four endings carry most of the work. A name ending in -ectomy means something was removed, -otomy means it was cut into, -ostomy means a new opening was made, and -plasty means it was reshaped or repaired. A gastrectomy removes part of the stomach, a gastrotomy opens it, and a gastrostomy creates a lasting opening into it. One syllable separates three different operations.
Terms in this topic
Alphabetical order-
The name records both incisions, one in the abdomen and one around the anus, and because the anus goes, the stoma is permanent.
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The appeal is precision: a defined volume of tissue is destroyed where it lies, sparing the wider operation removing it would require.
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A procedure in which drugs, vitamins, herbal extracts, or other fluids are injected into the body at an acupuncture point using a syringe and needle.
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A procedure in which mild electric currents are applied to certain acupuncture points (spots on the body where an acupuncture needle may be inserted to control pain and other symptoms) on the skin.
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Removal of one or both of the small glands capping the kidneys, whose hormones are potent enough that losing both changes life permanently.
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An injection of ethanol (alcohol) through the skin directly into a tumor to kill cancer cells.
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A word describing where donated material came from: another person of the same species, neither the recipient nor an animal.
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A procedure in which a person receives stem cells (cells from which all blood cells develop) from a genetically similar, but not identical, donor.
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Tissue moved from one person to another, which works well mechanically but is recognized as foreign by the recipient immune system.
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An anastomosis is a connection joining two tubular structures, such as blood vessels or bowel segments, whether formed naturally or surgically.
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Treatment to suppress or block the production or action of male hormones.
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General anesthesia is not deep sleep, since a sleeping person can be roused by noise or touch and an anesthetized one cannot.
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A procedure to x-ray blood vessels.
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No incision ever reaches the artery: the whole repair travels there through a puncture, which is why recovery bears no resemblance to bypass surgery.
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A procedure in which a tube is inserted into the chest to view the tissues and organs in the area between the lungs and between the breastbone and heart.
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Apheresis is a procedure that separates and collects a specific blood component while returning the remaining blood to the donor or patient.
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Removal of the appendix, among the commonest emergency abdominal operations, now usually done through three small cuts rather than one.
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A procedure that destroys tissue with an electrical current passed through a stream of argon gas to the tissue.
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The process of heating (without boiling) a mixture of water and an essential oil (scented liquid taken from a plant) to release a pleasant aroma.
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A narrowed artery reopened from the inside by a balloon threaded to the blockage on a fine wire, without opening the chest.