trephine

English

bone biopsy trephine kit

Etymology

Borrowed from French tréphine, from Latin trepanum, from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “auger, borer”). Doublet of trepan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹɪˈfaɪn/

Noun

trephine (plural trephines)

1. (medicine) A surgical instrument with a cylindrical blade used to remove a circular section of tissue, such as bone or cornea; a trepan.

   They removed a core of bone as well as took a bone marrow aspirate from my right hip using a trephine to exclude me having a blood cancer, causing a blood- and serum-stained shirt, a whopping hematoma and a great deal of mental anguish and physical pain in the process!

Synonyms

• trepan (obsolete)

Translations

surgical instrument to remove a circular section from the skull

• French: trépan (fr) m, tréphine (fr)
• Ottoman Turkish: طرپان (tırpan)
• Spanish: trépano (es) m
• Swedish: trepan (sv) c

Verb

trephine (third-person singular simple present trephines, present participle trephining, simple past and past participle trephined)

1. (intransitive) To use a trephine during surgery.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula:

     "We shall wait," said Van Helsing, "just long enough to fix the best spot for trephining, so that we may most quickly and perfectly remove the blood clot, for it is evident that the haemorrhage is increasing."

2. (transitive) To perforate with a trephine.
   • 1901 August 16, “Veterinary Departmental Report for May, 1901”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record‎^[1], volume 4, number 12, page 382:

     The pony was cast, and trephined, a middle-sized trephine (or bone saw) being used, which removed a circular piece of bone about the size of a two shilling piece, from the face immediately over the air cavity.

Anagrams

• nephrite, prehnite, repineth, ripeneth