tracheostomy
Meaning of tracheostomy: A tracheostomy provides an airway route that bypasses the mouth, nose, and throat entirely, distinguishing it from a tube passed through those structures.
Definition of tracheostomy
A tracheostomy is a surgically created opening in the front of the neck leading directly into the trachea, the airway connecting the throat to the lungs, allowing a person to breathe through this opening rather than through the nose and mouth. A tube is typically placed through the opening to keep it open and to allow a connection to breathing equipment when needed.
Tracheostomy is performed for several reasons, including a blockage or narrowing of the upper airway, the need for prolonged mechanical ventilation, or conditions that impair a person's ability to protect the airway from secretions, and it is generally considered when a breathing tube passed through the mouth is expected to be needed for an extended period.
The term tracheostomy refers to both the surgical procedure itself and, informally, to the resulting opening, and the tube used to keep the opening patent is more precisely called a tracheostomy tube.
How tracheostomy is built
- trache/o Combining form · Greek trachea, windpipe
- -ostomy Suffix · Greek surgically created lasting opening
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
Used in a sentence
A tracheostomy was performed to allow for long term mechanical ventilation.
Good to know
Tracheostomy is often confused with tracheotomy, a closely related term describing the incision made into the trachea, while tracheostomy refers specifically to creating the lasting stoma, or opening.
Word origin
Where “tracheostomy” comes from
Formed from Greek tracheia, meaning windpipe, and stoma, meaning mouth or opening.