Trocar

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sharp-pointed surgical instrument with a cannula used to puncture a body cavity for drainage or to introduce surgical instruments; a tool employed in medical procedures to create access; an instrument designed for penetrating tissue to facilitate surgery
2. A pointed device consisting of a hollow tube and a sharp tip used by surgeons to pierce body compartments for fluid removal or instrument insertion; a common surgical puncturing tool; an apparatus that aids in invasive medical treatments by providing entry
3. A medical implement featuring a sharp, pointed end and a tubular sheath used to puncture and gain access to internal spaces during operations; a surgical tool for entering body cavities; an instrument facilitating minimally invasive procedures by creating ports for instruments or drainage

Etymology: The surgical trocar takes its name from a mistake in French. Its source is French "trocart", which was a corruption of "trois-quart", meaning "three-quarter". The name refers to the instrument's triangular, three-faced tip, the sharp point that lets it pierce tissue cleanly. Those three cutting faces are the reason the tool was named for a fraction rather than for a shape or a function. Over time, the French form was altered from its original wording, so the everyday sense of "three-quarter" was lost while the tool kept its name. A surgeon who uses a trocar today is therefore working with a term whose literal meaning has nothing to do with medicine, but everything to do with the geometry of the point.

Synonyms: cannula, surgical instrument