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Health Dictionary

Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.

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Surgical procedures

Introduction

Overview

Overview

Surgical procedures have long and possibly daunting names. The meaning of many surgical procedure names can often be understood if the name is broken into parts. For example in splenectomy, “ectomy” is a suffix meaning the removal of a part of the body. “Splene-” means spleen. Thus, splenectomy refers to the surgical removal of the spleen (or sections thereof). “otomy” means to cut into a part of the body; a splenotomy would be to cut into, but not necessarily remove, the spleen.

The field of minimally invasive surgery has spawned another set of words, such as arthroscopic or laparoscopic surgery. These take the same form as above; an arthroscope is a device which allows the inside of the joint to be seen.

See also: Category:Surgical procedures

List of surgical term roots

List of surgical term roots

Prefixes

  • angio- : related to blood vessels
  • arthr- : related to a joint
  • bi- : two
  • colpo- : related to the vagina
  • encephal- : related to the brain
  • hepat- : related to the liver
  • hyster- : related to the uterus
  • lapar- : related to the abdominal cavity
  • lobo- : related to a lobe (of the brain or lungs)
  • mammo- and masto-: related to the breast
  • myo- : related to muscle tissue
  • nephro- : related to the kidney
  • oophor- : related to the ovary
  • orchid- : related to the testicle
  • vas- : related to the vas deferens
  • lamino- : related to vertebrae intervertebral disc
  • gastro- : related to stomach stomach
  • colono- : related to large intestine colon

Suffixes

  • -centesis: surgical puncture
  • -desis : fusion of two parts into one, stabilization
  • -ectomy: surgical removal (see List of -ectomies). The term ‘resection’ is also used, especially when referring to a tumor.
  • -oid : similar to
  • -opsy : looking at
  • -ostomy or -stomy: surgically creating a hole (a new “mouth” or “stoma“)
  • -otomy or -tomy: surgical incision (see List of -otomies)
  • -plasty : replacement
  • -rrhapy: suture
  • -graphy : writing about or a representation of a specified thing
List of surgical procedures

List of surgical procedures

External links