-pexy

The combining form -pexy is used like a suffix meaning “solidity.” It is often used in medical terms, especially in surgery for procedures that fix an organ into place.

The form -pexy comes from the Greek pêxis, meaning “a fixing, solidity.” Fixing, here, means “securing into place”—or, with the meaning and sense of -pexy in mind, “putting into a solid position.”

One example of the combining form -pexy is gastropexy, meaning “the surgical attachment of the stomach to the abdominal wall or to the diaphragm.”

The first element of the word, gastro-, may look familiar; it means “stomach.” As we now know, -pexy refers to surgical fixation. So, gastropexy, in other words, is “a fixing of the stomach.”

What are some words that use the combining form –pexy?

• colopexy
• cordopexy
• enteropexy
• hysteropexy
• ileopexy
• orchiopexy
• splenopexy
• uteropexy

What are some other forms that -pexy may be commonly confused with?

• -plex
• -plastic
• -lepsy
• pachy-

The combining form colo- is used to represent the colon, as in the part of the large intestine. With this in mind, what does the medical procedure of a colopexy involve?