edgepedia

Surgery and surgical specialties

1,253 articles

Hand-Assisted Laparoscopy

Hand-assisted laparoscopy (HALS), also called hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery, is a hybrid of open and laparoscopic surgery in which the surgeon's gloved hand is inserted through a hand-port device while pneumoperitoneum is maintained, restoring tactile feedback; used in colectomy, splenectomy, and nephrectomy.

Hardware Removal

Hardware removal (implant removal, metalwork removal) is the surgical extraction of orthopedic plates, screws, and nails after fracture fixation, done for pain, infection, or broken hardware; evidence does not support routine removal of asymptomatic implants such as syndesmotic screws.

Hartmann's procedure

Hartmann's procedure is an emergency colorectal operation that removes the diseased sigmoid colon and upper rectum, closes the rectal stump, and brings the proximal colon out as an end colostomy.

Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation

Heart valve prosthesis implantation replaces diseased native valves with mechanical or bioprosthetic devices, surgically since 1952 and by transcatheter methods (TAVI/TAVR) since the early 2000s, with anticoagulation and durability trade-offs.

Heller myotomy

Heller myotomy is a surgical operation for achalasia that divides the lower esophageal sphincter muscle, usually laparoscopically, relieving swallowing difficulty in 90 to 95% of patients.

Hemiarthroplasty

Hemiarthroplasty is a hip operation that replaces the femoral head and neck with a prosthesis while leaving the socket untouched, used mainly for displaced femoral neck fractures in older adults.

Hemicolectomy

A hemicolectomy is an operation in which a segment of the colon is removed, most often to treat colon cancer, together with the mesentery and lymph nodes that drain it.

Hemicorporectomy

Hemicorporectomy, or translumbar amputation, is an ultra-radical surgery removing the lower half of the body at the lumbar spine, with aorta, vena cava, and spinal cord transection. About 79 cases reported; used for pelvic malignancy, osteomyelitis, and trauma.

Hemiepiphysiodesis

Hemiepiphysiodesis is a pediatric orthopedic technique that arrests growth on one side of a growth plate, letting the other side grow to straighten angular limb deformities in children.

Hemihepatectomy

Hemihepatectomy, including right hemihepatectomy, is a major hepatobiliary operation that removes one half of the liver, right or left, along the Cantlie line, reserved mainly for malignant tumors.

Hemilaminectomy

A hemilaminectomy is a spinal decompression procedure that removes bone on one side of a vertebral arch, used in dogs for disc extrusion and in humans for lumbar stenosis.

Hemimandibulectomy

Hemimandibulectomy is the surgical removal of one half of the mandible, performed mainly for oral cancers that invade the jawbone, and usually requiring reconstruction, often with a free fibula flap.

Hemipelvectomy

Hemipelvectomy, also called external hemipelvectomy or hindquarter amputation, is surgery removing an entire leg with part of the pelvis, usually for malignant bone or soft-tissue tumors.

Hemispherotomy

Hemispherotomy is a neurosurgical operation that disconnects one cerebral hemisphere from the rest of the brain to stop drug-resistant epilepsy, most often in children with extensive disease confined to that hemisphere.

Hemithyroidectomy

Hemithyroidectomy is an operation removing one lobe of the thyroid gland, usually with the isthmus, leaving the opposite lobe, parathyroids, and recurrent laryngeal nerve intact.

Hemorrhoidectomy

Hemorrhoidectomy is the surgical excision of hemorrhoidal tissue, considered the gold standard for grade III–IV hemorrhoids; its main variants are the closed Ferguson technique and the open Milligan–Morgan operation.

Hemostat

Hemostat (hemostatic forceps, artery forceps): a ratcheted locking surgical clamp with ring handles used to compress blood vessels and stop bleeding; types include Crile, Kelly, Halsted mosquito, and Kocher; developed from Péan's and Spencer Wells' artery forceps.

Henry Hugh Clutton

Henry Hugh Clutton (1850–1909) was an English surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital whose 1886 Lancet description of painless knee effusions in congenital syphilis gave medicine "Clutton's joints".

Hepatectomy

Hepatectomy, also called major hepatectomy, is surgery to remove part of the liver, classically three or more of its eight segments, with mortality now 2 to 3%.

Hepaticojejunostomy

Hepaticojejunostomy, also called the Rodney Smith operation when performed with transhepatic intubation, is a surgical operation connecting the hepatic bile duct to a Roux-en-Y jejunal limb to bypass strictures and repair bile duct injuries.

Hepatoportoenterostomy

Hepatoportoenterostomy, also called the Kasai procedure or hepatic portoenterostomy, is an operation that restores bile drainage in infants with biliary atresia by joining a jejunal loop to the liver's porta hepatis.

Hernia mesh repair

Hernia mesh repair is a surgical technique that reinforces abdominal wall hernia closure with synthetic or biologic mesh, allowing tension-free repair that roughly halves recurrence versus suture repair and is standard for inguinal hernias.

Hernioplasty

Hernioplasty is the surgical repair of a hernia, usually inguinal, in which the abdominal wall defect is reinforced with prosthetic mesh rather than sutured tissue.

Herniorrhaphy

Herniorrhaphy is the surgical repair of a hernia by stitching the defect closed with the patient's own tissue, without mesh, now largely replaced by mesh hernioplasty.

Herniotomy

Herniotomy is a surgical operation in which the hernial sac is excised and ligated at its neck, and it is the standard curative procedure for inguinal hernia in children.

Hiatal hernia repair

Hiatal hernia repair is surgery that pulls a stomach herniated through the diaphragm back into the abdomen, narrows the hiatus, and usually adds a fundoplication to restore the antireflux barrier.

HIFU ablation

HIFU ablation is a noninvasive treatment using focused high-intensity ultrasound beams to heat and destroy targeted tissue, such as tumors, guided by MRI or ultrasound.

Hip arthroscopy

Hip arthroscopy is a keyhole surgical procedure of the hip joint, performed mainly for femoroacetabular impingement; about 50,000 are done annually in the United States.

Hip resurfacing

Hip resurfacing is a hip arthritis operation that caps the femoral head with a metal shell instead of removing it, preserving bone and suiting younger, active patients.

History of cataract surgery

History of cataract surgery: from ancient couching (Sushruta Samhita) through Jacques Daviel's 1747/1750 planned extraction, Sharp's 1753 ICCE, Kelman's 1967 phacoemulsification, IOLs, MSICS, and femtosecond laser surgery.