List of surgical procedures
Many surgical procedure names can be broken into parts to indicate the meaning. For example, in gastrectomy, "ectomy" is a suffix meaning the removal of a part of the body. "Gastro-" means stomach. Thus, gastrectomy refers to the surgical removal of the stomach (or sections thereof). "Otomy" means cutting into a part of the body; a gastrotomy would be cutting into, but not necessarily removing, the stomach. And also "pharyngo" means pharynx, "laryngo" means larynx, "esophag" means esophagus. Thus, "pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy" refers to the surgical removal of the three.
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 and techniques
List of common surgery terms
Prefixes
- angio- : related to a blood vessel
- arthr- : related to a joint
- bi- : two
- colono- : related to large intestine colon
- colpo- : related to the vagina
- cysto- : related to the bladder
- encephal- : related to the brain
- gastr- : related to stomach
- hepat- : related to the liver
- hyster- : related to the uterus
- lamino- : related to the lamina (posterior aspect of vertebra)
- lapar- : related to the abdominal cavity
- Etymology actually refers to soft, fleshy part of abdominal wall. The term celio- is generally considered more accurate and more commonly used in America.
- lobo- : related to a lobe (of the brain or lungs)
- mammo- and masto-: related to the breasts
- myo- : related to muscle tissue
- nephro- : related to the kidney
- oophor- : related to the ovary
- orchid- : related to the testicles
- rhino- : related to the nose
- thoraco- : related to the chest
- vas- : related to a duct, usually the vas deferens
Suffixes
- -centesis : surgical puncture
- -tripsy : crushing or breaking up
- -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.
- -opsy : looking at
- -oscopy : viewing of, normally with a scope
- -ostomy or -stomy : surgically creating a hole (a new "mouth" or "stoma", see List of -ostomies)
- -otomy or -tomy : surgical incision (see List of -otomies)
- -pexy : to fix or secure
- -plasty : to modify or reshape (sometimes entails replacement with a prosthesis)
- -rrhaphy : to strengthen, usually with suture