Pylorectomy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Surgical excision of the pylorus, the muscular valve at the lower end of the stomach that leads into the small intestine
2. An operation that cuts out the pyloric sphincter where the stomach empties into the duodenum
3. The removal, by surgery, of the narrow muscular opening at the base of the stomach that controls food passage

Etymology: A pylorectomy is a surgical removal of the pylorus, the muscular valve at the lower end of the stomach that controls the passage of food into the small intestine. The word is built from two parts: "pylor-", from the Greek "pylōros", meaning "gatekeeper" (from "pylē", gate, and "ouros", guardian), and the suffix "-ectomy", from Greek "ektomē", meaning "excision" or "cutting out." The Greek term for the valve itself gave anatomists a fitting name, since the pylorus literally guards the exit of the stomach. Because the word is a technical coinage assembled from classical Greek parts, it was created by medical writers rather than inherited from ancient physicians. Ancient Greek physicians knew the pylorus as a structure but had no surgical operation on it, so the compound reflects modern surgical vocabulary built on older anatomical terms.