Procedural Terminology

In this Lesson, we’re going to take a look at the medical terminology used for surgical and non-surgical procedures.

Now the first thing we want to take a look at are the different types of scope procedures. So anytime you see the word oscopy know that is going to be some sort of inspection of something by a scope. And most commonly these are the different type of school procedures are going to see. For any sort of scope of the abdomen is going to be a laparoscopy, for joints it’s an arthroscopy, for the colon is called a colonoscopy. Now one of our favorite terms that we love to use here it is the scope that goes down the esophagus into the stomach and into the small intestine. This is called an esophagogastroduodenoscopy. In whatever facility you’re in, you’ll  most commonly going to see this written as an EGD. But that’s what it stands for. For patients that have breathing issues and they need to have their Airway visualized Bill undergo a bronchoscopy.

Another type of procedure a patient may undergo is something called a centesis. A centesis  is the surgical removal of fluid with a needle. Synthesis is actually the suffix, so you add the root word of the combining form before it. So in this picture we can see that the providers in getting a sample of the amniotic fluid. Because it’s the amniotic fluid vehicle is an amniocentesis. For patients that have fluid in your abdomen they may  need something called and abdominocentesis or sometimes is called a paracentesis. If there’s going to be any sort of removal of core testing of fluid inside the thorax that’s going to be a saracco sintesis. Now there Art medical term to describe the way to get cerebrospinal fluid from a patient, but the most common type that you’ll see is something called a lumbar puncture. Just know that a lumbar puncture is the same thing as a -centesis, but it  happens at the level of a lumbar spine.

The other type of  non-surgical procedure that you may see some to call the biopsy. Opsy means a view of,  and bio means life. What this means is that there’s some sort of removal of cells or tissue so that they can look at it under a microscope. An excisional biopsy is actually going in to the area of concern and surgically removing some of the cells to look at it. Another way to do this is using a needle biopsy. As you can see here in this picture, a needle is inserted into the bone marrow to get bone marrow sampling.

Finally we want to look at these different types of surgical terms. Surgeries are going to be commonly described by the suffix. So we can see the most common ones that were using. Ectomy means the surgical removal or resection of something where’s an otomy  is cutting into something. An example of this would be a laminectomy versus a laminotomy. A laminectomy is actually removing the lamina that’s causing maybe some pressure or impingement on the spinal cord, where is a laminotomy Is a partial removal or a decompression of the lamina. Other types of suffixes that describe surgeries are going to be plasty which is a surgical repair vs a pexy which is actually a fixation. Another one that you’ve probably seen is an  ostomy. We use this term colloquially meaning that we use it, to describe maybe a stoma if it’s on the oven or if it’s at the area of the trachea, but it literally is the process of creating a hole or mouth. Another kind of rare one that you may see is -desis, which actually means a binding or fusion of two things together. An arthrodesis is an example of this. It can sometimes be used in arthritic patients to help alleviate their pain by fusing joints together.

Okay so let’s recap. Remember that  the term oscopy tells you that something is being visualized with the use of some sort of scope or other instrument. A sintesis is that removal of fluid and a biopsy is the removal of cells and these are both commonly done with a needle and a syringe. And finally was surgeries you want to pay attention to the suffix because it tells you a lot about the type of procedure that’s going on.

And that’s it for a lesson on procedural medical terminology. Make sure you check out all the resources attached to this lesson. Now, go out and be your best self today, and as always happy nursing!