Thoracocentesis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical procedure in which a needle or catheter is inserted through the chest wall to draw off fluid or air from the pleural space
2. The surgical puncturing of the chest cavity to remove accumulated liquid or gas trapped around the lungs
3. Drainage of pleural fluid or air by piercing the thoracic wall with a hollow needle, performed to relieve pressure on the lungs

Etymology: Thoracocentesis is a medical term built entirely from Greek parts. Its first half, "thoraco-", comes from Greek "thōrax", meaning chest or breastplate, the same root that gives English "thorax" for the part of the body between neck and abdomen. The second half, "-centesis", comes from Greek "kentēsis", a puncturing, from "kentein", to prick or pierce with a sharp point. The Greek word was used for the surgical puncture of a body cavity to drain fluid, a procedure that long predates the modern term. Put together, the word literally means "piercing of the chest." Its pieces are the same ones found in related terms such as "paracentesis", the drainage of abdominal fluid, which shares the same suffix and so follows the same pattern of meaning. The word is a technical coinage from classical roots, formed to name a specific clinical act rather than inherited from ancient medical vocabulary.

Synonyms: thoracentesis