Perfusions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of delivering fluids into an organ or tissue, typically through blood vessels
2. The act of supplying oxygen and nutrients to cells via the circulation of liquid substances
3. A medical procedure in which a liquid is infused into a biological system for therapeutic purposes

Etymology: "Perfusion" is the noun form of the verb "perfuse," which comes from Latin "perfundere," meaning "to pour over" or "to pour through." The Latin verb is built from "per-," "through" or "thoroughly," and "fundere," "to pour," the same root that gives English "fuse" and "infuse." The idea of liquid flowing through something is literal at the root, and the medical sense grows directly from it. The "-ion" ending marks an action or process, so "perfusion" names the act of pouring a fluid through a tissue or organ. In English the word was first used in its general sense of something soaked or saturated with liquid, and later took on the physiological meaning of circulating blood or other fluid through tissue. Medical writers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries used it for experiments in which organs were kept alive outside the body by pumping fluid through them. The plural "perfusions" simply refers to multiple instances of this process, such as separate procedures or experiments, each involving the circulation of a fluid through cells or tissue.

Synonyms: infusions, spreads