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Surgery and surgical specialties

1,253 articles

Bone lengthening

Bone lengthening is a surgical orthopedic technique that gradually lengthens a bone by cutting it and slowly pulling the segments apart, allowing new bone to form in the gap.

Bone marrow stimulation

Bone marrow stimulation (BMS) is an arthroscopic surgical technique used for focal defects in the knee and ankle, involving drilling through the subchondral bone to release marrow cells.

Bone Plates

Bone plates: metallic implants fixed to fractured bones with screws for internal fixation (osteosynthesis). Evolved from Lane 1895 and Danis 1949 compression plating to modern locking plates; stainless steel or titanium.

Bone-Patellar Tendon-Bone Grafting

Bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) grafting, also called BTB, is ACL reconstruction using the central third patellar tendon with bone plugs; introduced by Jones in 1963, it offers superior stability and low failure rates but more anterior knee pain than hamstring grafts.

Bowel resection

Bowel resection is surgery that removes a diseased segment of the small intestine, colon, or rectum and rejoins the ends, done for cancer, Crohn's disease, obstruction, or trauma.

Breast reconstruction

Breast reconstruction is surgery that rebuilds a breast after mastectomy or lumpectomy, using an implant or the patient's own tissue; about 80% of US procedures use implants.

Breast reduction

Breast reduction (reduction mammaplasty) is surgery removing breast skin and tissue to relieve macromastia symptoms; pedicle techniques, 2.5% major complications, improved quality of life, 76,040 US procedures in 2025.

Breast-conserving surgery

Breast-conserving surgery, also called lumpectomy or partial mastectomy, removes a breast cancer tumor with a rim of healthy tissue while keeping the breast; radiation follows, and survival equals mastectomy.

Breast-conserving therapy

Breast-conserving therapy, also called lumpectomy with radiation, treats early-stage breast cancer by removing the tumor with healthy tissue margins while keeping the breast, with survival equal to mastectomy.

Breech extraction

Breech extraction: obstetric maneuver delivering a fetus feet- or buttocks-first by traction. Used for a non-vertex second twin and as reverse breech extraction for an impacted head at cesarean.

Bullectomy

Bullectomy is a thoracic surgical procedure that removes giant emphysematous bullae, air spaces filling a third or more of the chest, so compressed lung can re-expand and breathing improves in emphysema.

Bunionectomy

A bunionectomy is an operation that corrects hallux valgus by removing the bunion's bony bump and realigning the great-toe joint to relieve pain, with more than 150 described techniques.

Bursectomy

Bursectomy is a surgical procedure that removes an inflamed bursa, the fluid-filled sac that cushions bone against overlying soft tissue, reserved for bursitis unresponsive to rest, medication, aspiration, and injections.

Button fixation

Button fixation is a surgical technique in which a cortical button passed through a bone tunnel holds ligament or tendon grafts, used chiefly in ACL reconstruction.

Bypass grafting

Bypass grafting is surgery that routes blood around a blocked artery using a grafted vessel, dominated by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), performed about 400,000 times annually in the United States.

Caesarean section

Caesarean section (C-section): surgical delivery of a baby through abdominal and uterine incisions, elective or emergency. Global rate rose from 6% (1990) to 21% (2018); most frequent major abdominal surgery worldwide.

Calcaneal osteotomy

A calcaneal osteotomy is a surgical cut of the heel bone (calcaneus) that realigns a flatfoot or cavovarus hindfoot, turning the Achilles tendon into a corrective force.

Canaloplasty

Canaloplasty is a glaucoma operation, first reported in 2007, that catheterizes Schlemm's canal around its full circumference, dilates it, and tensions it with a suture.

Cannulated screw fixation

Cannulated screw fixation is a surgical technique in which hollow screws are threaded over a guide wire, used mainly for femoral neck fractures and also scaphoid and small-bone fractures.

Canthotomy

Canthotomy is an emergency procedure that cuts the lateral canthus of the eye to relieve orbital compartment syndrome, usually combined with cantholysis, before irreversible vision loss occurs.

Capsular release

Capsular release is a surgical procedure, usually performed arthroscopically, that cuts a contracted joint capsule to restore range of motion and reduce pain, most often for frozen shoulder.

Capsular repair

Capsular repair is the surgical closure of the hip joint capsule incision at the end of hip arthroscopy, restoring stability; leaving it open raises revision and hip replacement risk.

Capsulorhexis

Capsulorhexis is a cataract-surgery technique in which the surgeon tears a continuous circular opening in the lens capsule by hand, the standard method since its 1990 description.

Cardiac surgery

Cardiac surgery, also called heart surgery, is the surgical treatment of heart and thoracic aorta diseases, most commonly coronary artery bypass grafting, via open-heart, off-pump, minimally invasive, or robotic approaches.

Cardiac Surgical Procedures

Cardiac surgical procedures (MeSH D006348) are operations on the heart: CABG, valve repair and replacement, congenital repairs, and transplantation. Field began with Rehn's 1896 wound repair; Gibbon's 1953 heart-lung machine enabled open-heart surgery.

Cardiomyoplasty

Cardiomyoplasty (dynamic cardiomyoplasty): surgery wrapping stimulated latissimus dorsi muscle around the failing heart, first performed 1985 in Paris by Carpentier and Chachques; improved symptoms but was abandoned for inconsistent hemodynamic benefit.

CARE trial

CARE (Colpopexy and Urinary Reduction Efforts) trial: NIH-funded randomized trial in 322 stress-continent women testing prophylactic Burch colposuspension during abdominal sacrocolpopexy; it reduced postoperative stress incontinence at 3 months and 2 years.

Carotid angioplasty

Carotid angioplasty and stenting is a minimally invasive procedure that widens a narrowed carotid artery with a balloon and stent to prevent stroke, an alternative to carotid endarterectomy.

Carpectomy

Carpectomy is a wrist operation that removes one or more carpal bones, most often the entire proximal row, to relieve pain in advanced wrist arthritis while preserving motion.

Cartilage tympanoplasty

Cartilage tympanoplasty is a surgical technique that repairs a perforated eardrum with a rigid cartilage graft, usually from the tragus, achieving better anatomical outcomes than fascia grafts.