Surgical procedures have long and possibly daunting names. The meaning of many surgical procedure names can often be understood if the name is broken into parts. For example in splenectomy, "ectomy" is a suffix meaning the removal of a part of the body. "Splene-" means spleen. Thus, splenectomy refers to the surgical removal of the spleen (or sections thereof). "otomy" means to cut into a part of the body; a splenotomy would be to cut into, but not necessarily remove, the spleen. The field of minimally invasive surgery has spawned another set of words, such as arthroscopic or laparoscopic surgery...