Meaning & use
osteoclasis
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablemedicaltechnical
A medical procedure in which a bone is broken on purpose to fix a deformity or straighten it.
Grammar: Used as an uncountable noun; it rarely takes a plural and is not used with 'a' or 'an'.
Patterns
- perform osteoclasis
- osteoclasis of a bone
- undergo osteoclasis
The surgeon performed osteoclasis to correct the boy's badly healed forearm.
Osteoclasis is sometimes chosen when a bone has fused in the wrong position.
After osteoclasis, the limb is usually held in a cast while the bone heals again.
Common combinations
- perform osteoclasis
- The orthopedic team decided to perform osteoclasis on the malunited bone.
- osteoclasis of the femur
- Osteoclasis of the femur can restore alignment in young patients.
- undergo osteoclasis
- She had to undergo osteoclasis before the bone could be reset properly.
- closed osteoclasis
- Closed osteoclasis is done without opening the skin.
Synonyms and how they differ
- osteotomy
- Osteotomy means cutting a bone surgically, often to change its shape, while osteoclasis uses controlled breaking rather than cutting.
- refracture
- Refracture is a broader term for breaking a bone again, not necessarily a planned procedure to correct a deformity.
Word family
- osteoclast noun
- A cell that breaks down bone tissue, or a surgical instrument used to fracture bone.
- osteoclastic adjective
- Relating to the breaking down or fracturing of bone.
Commonly confused: osteoclasis or osteoclasia? osteoclasis or osteoclasia?
osteoclasis vs osteoclasia
Osteoclasia is a rare variant spelling of osteoclasis; both refer to the same procedure, but osteoclasis is the standard form in modern medical writing.
osteoclasis vs osteoclasia
Some older texts use osteoclasia for the absorption of bone by cells, so check the context to avoid confusion.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'osteoclasis' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Osteoclasis is a procedure, so it is performed by a surgeon to correct a deformity. The other options treat it as an infection, a disease, or a sensation, which does not match its meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “osteoclasis”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.