A surgical instrument used to cut into the bladder, especially during cataract surgery or to access bladder stones.
From Greek 'kystis' (bladder) + 'tome' (cutting tool); the suffix '-tome' comes from Greek 'temnein' meaning 'to cut' and appears in many surgical instrument names.
The cystitome has an interesting surgical history—it was developed when cataract surgeons had to cut through the bladder wall to reach the eye lens for removal, a procedure that sounds horrifying by modern standards but was actually a major surgical advance at the time.
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