Hepatectomy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Surgical excision of all or part of the liver, performed to treat tumours, injury or other diseased tissue in that organ
2. The operation of cutting out a portion or the whole of the liver, typically carried out to remove cancer or damaged hepatic tissue
3. A surgical procedure in which some or all of the liver is removed from the body to address disease or trauma affecting that organ

Etymology: Hepatectomy is a surgical term built from two Greek elements: "hepat-", from Greek "hēpar" (genitive "hēpatos"), meaning liver, and "-ectomy", from Greek "ektomē", meaning a cutting out. Put together, the word names the surgical removal of all or part of the liver. The pattern is a modern one. Words ending in "-ectomy" were coined in English and other European languages from classical Greek pieces to name surgical removals, so the term was not used by ancient physicians, who had no such operation in their repertoire. Its suffix matches a family of similar names such as "appendectomy" and "mastectomy", all formed the same way.

Synonyms: liver resection