fistula
Americannoun
-
Pathology. a narrow passage or duct formed by disease or injury, as one leading from an abscess to a free surface, or from one cavity to another.
-
Surgery. an opening made into a hollow organ, as the bladder or eyeball, for drainage.
-
Veterinary Pathology. any of various suppurative inflammations, as in the withers of a horse fistulous withers, characterized by the formation of passages or sinuses through the tissues and to the surface of the skin.
-
Obsolete. a pipe, as a flute.
noun
-
pathol an abnormal opening between one hollow organ and another or between a hollow organ and the surface of the skin, caused by ulceration, congenital malformation, etc
-
obsolete any musical wind instrument; a pipe
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fistula
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin: “pipe, tube,” of uncertain origin
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Our discovery of unique fistula fibroblasts, distinct monocyte differentiation in African-ancestry individuals, and key transcription factor binding events helps us illuminate mechanistic underpinnings of perianal fistula -- critical for the optimization of future treatment."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
A fistula is an internal hole and can be the result of childbirth.
From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2023
While rare today in developed countries, an obstetric vesicovaginal fistula was a major complication of childbirth among 19th century women in America.
From Salon ● Mar. 18, 2023
In a quarter of cases, the prolonged labor will also cause fistula of the rectum, so that the girl constantly leaks both urine and feces.
From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2022
In some cases the depression communicates with the vertebral canal, constituting a complete sacro-coccygeal fistula, which may be lined with cylindrical or ciliated epithelium.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander
The team identified several key pathways underlying fistulizing Crohn's disease, including cellular aging and loss of proliferation, reaction to microenvironmental stimuli, and a destructive gene signature in connective tissues that is unique to perianal fistulae.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
Perianal fistulae, abnormal connections between the anal canal and perianal skin, are a common complication of Crohn's disease that often result in painful abscesses and impact patients' quality of life.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
Over the last four decades, the ships’ surgeons have performed surgeries in 56 developing countries, operating on patients with such conditions as tumors, cataracts, burns, obstetric fistulae or bone deformities, among others.
From Fox News ● May 21, 2019
On a shelf is a lurid, plastic, life-size model of a rectum afflicted by every imaginable malady – haemorrhoids, fistulae, ulcerative colitis, faecaliths.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 31, 2013
The appendix has been found to be the seat of tubercular processes; in the rectum they form the general cause of the fistulae and abscesses so commonly met with here.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 4 "Diameter" to "Dinarchus" by Various
She says there is a huge stigma around fistulas and stomas in the Kenyan culture.
From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2023
It causes inflammation and damage to the digestive system, leading to symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss and fatigue and complications such as strictures and fistulas.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 17, 2023
James Marion Sims, a 19th century Alabama surgeon heralded as the father of modern gynecology, pioneered a treatment for vesicovaginal fistulas, a condition that affects bladder control and fertility in women.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2023
He is most famous for improving the technique to repair obstetric fistulas, which are abnormal openings between a woman's genital tract, urinary tract or rectum that cause urinary incontinence.
From Salon ● Mar. 18, 2023
These are inserted into the fistulas, and the false mucous coat of these passages thus destroyed.
From Diseases of the Horse's Foot by Reeks, Harry Caulton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
