Arteriotomy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surgical intervention that requires the incision of an artery to permit access for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes
2. The technique of making a surgical cut into an artery to enable examination or treatment of blood vessel conditions
3. A surgical procedure involving the opening of an artery to facilitate medical examination or intervention related to vascular disorders

Etymology: "Arteriotomy" is built from two Greek elements that medical writers combined: "arteria," the artery, and "-tomia," a cutting or incision, from the Greek "temnein," to cut. The pattern is the same as "tomy" words such as "appendectomy" or "lobotomy," where the suffix names the act of cutting into an organ. The term was formed as a Latin-style coinage, borrowed into English from the Latin "arteriotomia," which means the same thing. Its form reflects the scientific habit of building new medical vocabulary from classical roots, so it was not an ancient Greek or Roman term for a surgical operation. Its English use belongs to the modern era of surgery, when opening blood vessels became a routine way to reach the circulation.