-ectomy, -ectome, -ectomize
(Greek: a suffix; cut, excise, surgical removal of)
Tympanum or the drum of the ear, the eardrum, the tympanic membrane. The tympanum resembles the head of a tiny drum and it separates the middle ear from the external ear.
This surgery is done under general anesthesia (asleep and pain-free) while the surgeon makes a cut in the abdomen or in the side of the abdomen (flank area). A rib may need to be removed to perform the procedure.
The ureter (the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder) and the blood vessels are cut away from the kidney and the kidney is removed. The cut is then closed.
Kidney removal may be done as open surgery, which involves a large cut in the side of the abdomen. Some patients may have laparoscopic surgery, which is less invasive and involves three or four small cuts, usually no more than an inch each, in the abdominal and flank areas.
Related cutting-word units: cast-; castrat-; -cise, -cide; mutil-; put-; sec-, seg-; temno-; -tomy; trunc-.
-Ectomy Word-Sources of Definitions