Anastomosis

anastomosis

[ə‚nas·tə′mō·səs]

(medicine)

A surgical communication made between blood vessels, for example, between the portal vein and the inferior vena cava.

An opening created by surgery, trauma, or disease between two or more normally separate spaces or organs.

(science and technology)

The union or intercommunication of parts or branches, such as blood vessels, streams, or leaf veins. Also known as inosculation.

A network of parts or branches created by the process of anastomosis.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Anastomosis

 

in animals, connections between nerves, muscles, and blood or lymphatic vessels. Anastomoses between arteries and veins, without the formation of capillary networks—that is, arteriovenous anastomoses—are of importance in regulating the blood supply of organs. In clinical practice, anastomosis is the name given to a connection between tubular organs which is artificial or has arisen as a consequence of disease. In higher plants, anastomosis is the connecting of tubular structures—for example, veins in leaves and branchings of latex vessels. In fungi, anastomosis is the connecting or concresence of two mycelium hyphae with the establishing of intercommunication between them. This occurs with an insufficiency of food and plays a role in the formation of diploid mycelium and the heterokaryon of haploid mycelium, since the cell nuclei move from one cell into another through the anastomoses.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.