A surgical procedure involving the cutting or opening of the hepatic veins (veins from the liver), sometimes used to treat certain vascular conditions.
From Greek 'hepato-' (liver) + 'phlebotomy' (vein cutting, from 'phlebo-' meaning vein + 'tomy' meaning cutting). This rare surgical term combines Greek roots that date back to ancient Hippocratic medicine.
'-Tomy' means 'cutting into' while '-ectomy' means 'cutting out'—so phlebotomy is cutting into a vein (to draw blood), but hepatophlebotomy specifically targets the liver's major veins. The precision of medical terminology lets surgeons be incredibly specific about what they're operating on.
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