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apheresis

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Medicine A procedure in which blood is drawn from a donor and separated into its components, some of which are retained, such as plasma or platelets, and the remainder returned by transfusion to the donor.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In grammar, the omission of a letter or an unaccented syllable from the beginning of a word.
  • noun In med.: The removal of anything noxious. Large and injurious extraction of blood.
  • noun In surgery, amputation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Gram.) The dropping of a letter or syllable from the beginning of a word; e. g., cute for acute.
  • noun (Surg.), obsolete An operation by which any part is separated from the rest.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine The removal of blood from a patient, and the removal of certain components (such as platelets) from that blood, followed by the transfusion of the filtered blood back to the donor (patient).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a procedure in which blood is drawn and separated into its components by dialysis; some are retained and the rest are returned to the donor by transfusion
  • noun (linguistics) omission at the beginning of a word as in `coon' for `raccoon' or `till' for `until'

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin aphaeresis, from Ancient Greek ἀφαίρεσις (aphairesis, "a taking away"), from ἀφαιρέειν (aphaireein) (from ἀφ- (aph-, “aph-”, variant of ἀπό (apo, "off”, “away from") before an aspirated vowel) + αἱρέειν (aireein, "to take”, “to snatch")) + -σις (-sis, suffix forming nouns of action); the grammatical sense developed in Latin.

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Examples

  • The current state of bone marrow transplantation is that the immature blood cells are harvested using a process called apheresis which is in fact very similar to undergoing dialysis.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » IJ’s Bone Marrow Case: An Intro 2009

  • Today more than two-thirds of all donations are accomplished through a process called apheresis.

    A Lifesaving Legal Ruling on Organ Donation Sally Satel 2011

  • The agency Friday issued a heparin import alert as part of its investigation into hundreds of reports of allergic reactions in large doses of heparin sold by Baxter for heart surgery, kidney dialysis and a procedure called apheresis used in immune-disorder patients.

    FDA Orders Heparin Shipments 2008

  • The blood flows into a sterilized machine that separates the plasma from the red blood cells and then pumps blood back into your bloodstream, in a process called apheresis.

    How To Buy & Sell just about Everything Jeff Wuorio 2003

  • The blood flows into a sterilized machine that separates the plasma from the red blood cells and then pumps blood back into your bloodstream, in a process called apheresis.

    How To Buy & Sell just about Everything Jeff Wuorio 2003

  • The blood flows into a sterilized machine that separates the plasma from the red blood cells and then pumps blood back into your bloodstream, in a process called apheresis.

    How To Buy & Sell just about Everything Jeff Wuorio 2003

  • Called "apheresis," the procedure requires the donor to undergo five days of drug injections to stimulate production of specialized blood cells.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Called "apheresis," the procedure requires the donor to undergo five days of drug injections to stimulate production of specialized blood cells.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Called "apheresis," the procedure requires the donor to undergo five days of drug injections to stimulate production of specialized blood cells.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • The procedure had more postoperative complications than the new blood-drawing method, known as apheresis.

    latimes.com - News 2011

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. deletion
  2. omission

Comments

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  • bananniethree commented on the word apheresis

    Hmmm...why is this not in the OED?

    April 13, 2009

  • mollusque commented on the word apheresis

    OED spells it aphæresis.

    April 13, 2009

  • reesetee commented on the word apheresis

    It's also called aphesis.

    April 16, 2009

  • frogapplause commented on the word apheresis

    The only way to learn anything around here is to ask questions. Is it possible to say, "I gave blood apheresisly/apheresically??" (sp?)

    September 18, 2010

  • yarb commented on the word apheresis

    I'm not sure what the adverbial form would be. I'd say "I gave blood via apheresis".

    September 18, 2010

  • frogapplause commented on the word apheresis

    I still want to know if it's possible to use it as an adverb.

    September 18, 2010

  • mollusque commented on the word apheresis

    A heretical suggestion: apheretically.

    September 18, 2010

  • yarb commented on the word apheresis

    I'll be orthodox and agree with apheretically.

    September 18, 2010

  • Prolagus commented on the word apheresis

    I logged in to type apheretically.

    September 18, 2010

  • frogapplause commented on the word apheresis

    Thanks!

    September 19, 2010

  • biocon commented on the word apheresis

    In addition, apheresis means surgical excision of an abnormal part of the body; amputation; extraction (of teeth (OED).

    February 12, 2012