What does enterostomy mean?
An enterostomy is a surgical operation in which an opening is created between the intestine — usually the small intestine — and the surface of the abdomen, allowing intestinal contents to leave the body through a constructed passage called a stoma. Surgeons perform this procedure when disease, obstruction, injury, or tumour makes it necessary to divert or rest the normal digestive pathway, whether temporarily while tissue heals or permanently when part of the bowel must be removed. In everyday clinical use, the word is often replaced by more specific terms naming the exact segment of bowel involved, such as ileostomy (opening on the ileum) or jejunostomy (opening on the jejunum), with 'enterostomy' serving as the broader umbrella term. It is formal, technical vocabulary belonging to medicine and nursing; patients themselves are more likely to say they 'have a stoma'. The word derives from Greek roots meaning intestine and mouth or opening, joined by the suffix '-stomy' used throughout surgery for operations that create an opening.
nounA surgical operation in which an opening (stoma) is made into the intestine, typically the small intestine, through the abdominal wall, allowing intestinal contents to pass out of the body or bypass a diseased or obstructed section of bowel.
- Surgery: an artificial opening created between the small intestine and the abdominal wall.
- The stoma itself: the opening so created.
"After the tumour was removed, the surgeons performed an enterostomy to divert the flow through her abdominal wall."
"The surgical team performed a loop enterostomy to decompress the obstructed bowel before definitive repair."
"Nurses taught him how to clean and care for the skin around his enterostomy each day."
Regular plural: the final -y becomes -ies after the consonant 'm'. Used both for multiple procedures and for multiple openings.
"Over his career the surgeon performed hundreds of enterostomies, many of them life-saving."
The word 'enterostomy' literally means 'a mouth into the gut' — from Greek for intestine and mouth — and it has given countless patients their lives back after bowel disease or injury.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of enterostomy
Enterostomy comes from New Latin medical terminology built on Greek elements: 'enteron', meaning intestine or gut, combined with '-stomy', a suffix derived from Greek 'stoma', meaning mouth or opening, used to denote a surgically created opening. Such compound terms were coined by nineteenth-century European surgeons as abdominal surgery developed into a systematic discipline. The same Greek root 'enteron' appears in related words such as enteritis, enteric, and gastroenterology, while the '-stomy' suffix recurs across surgical vocabulary including colostomy, ileostomy, and tracheostomy.
Related word forms
How enterostomy is actually used
A formal medical term used almost exclusively in clinical and surgical contexts; lay speakers more often say 'ostomy' or name the specific procedure (e.g. ileostomy). The plural is 'enterostomies'.
Easily confused with enterostomy
A colostomy opens specifically onto the colon (large intestine), whereas an enterostomy refers more generally to an opening into the intestine, especially the small intestine.
An ileostomy is a specific type of enterostomy that opens onto the ileum, the final section of the small intestine.