List of 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 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.

Additional recommended knowledge

1 List of surgical term roots
- 1.1 Prefixes
- 1.2 Suffixes
2 List of surgical procedures

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