Surg. [f. Gr. κόλον COLON1 + -τομια cutting.] The operation of opening the colon, usually to form an artificial anus.
1867. New Syd. Soc. Biennial Retrospect, 314. A case of colotomy performed in the left loin.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 617. We perform colotomy on a patient with cancerous stricture of the intestine or other mechanical obstruction.
1882. Field Naturalist, 39. The colon of a sheep in which colotomy had been performed by a kea.
Hence Colotomize v., to treat by colotomy.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 636. In one of the patients colotomized for vesico-intestinal fistula.
