surgical procedures

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 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 to cut into a part of the body; a gastrotomy would be to cut into, but not necessarily remove, the stomach. 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