A surgical incision made into the colon, typically performed for medical examination, treatment, or relief of obstruction.
From Greek 'kolon' (colon) + 'tome' (cut), formed using the standard medical '-tomy' suffix. The term was coined in the 19th century as surgery became more specialized and named procedures precisely.
Colotomy has largely been replaced by colonoscopy—a camera on a tube instead of a surgical knife—showing how medical technology doesn't just improve procedures, it makes whole categories of surgery obsolete.
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