sphincterotomy
- noun
- /sfɪŋkˈtɛrəˌtɑmi/
- Specialized
- During the procedure, the surgeon performed a sphincterotomy to alleviate the patient's severe bile duct obstruction.
- endoscopic sphincterotomy
Examples
-
A limited sphincterotomy was done before stent insertion to reduce the risk of cholangitis noted in earlier work.
Academic text (2000) -
Endoscopic sphincterotomy and stone extraction are widely accepted as the initial treatment of choice for a patient of any age with choledocholithiasis; the bile duct can be cleared of stones in 90% of cases.
Academic text (2000) -
Complications of ERCP and endoscopic sphincterotomy were evaluated according to the criteria of Cotton et al. (n19).
Academic text (1992) -
Of those patients who developed cholangitis after having had their common bile duct cleared of stones, all had a gallbladder in situ as well as a previous standard sphincterotomy.
Academic text (2000) -
It thus seems that even after endoscopic sphincterotomy, recurrent cholangitis is a hazard; thus, once biliary drainage has been established, all patients should be carefully evaluated for cholecystectomy.
Academic text (2000) -
The doctor explained that a sphincterotomy might be necessary if the medication failed to relieve the symptoms.
-
After the sphincterotomy, the patient experienced significant improvement in their digestive function.
Synonyms
A surgery that cuts a muscle to make it less tight
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Sphincterotomy starts with sphincter, from a Greek word meaning 'to bind' or 'tighten', and ends with -otomy meaning 'cutting into', just like in tracheotomy. So a sphincterotomy is literally cutting a tight muscle that closes an opening, which is why the operation frees the muscle and helps it work better.
