Library / English Dictionary

DIVERTICULUM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: diverticula   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A herniation through the muscular wall of a tubular organ (especially the colon)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("diverticulum" is a kind of...):

hernia; herniation (rupture in smooth muscle tissue through which a bodily structure protrudes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "diverticulum"):

Meckel's diverticulum (a congenital diverticulum in the ileum resulting from incomplete closure of the yolk sac)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Malabsorption, especially of vitamin B12 or folic acid, due to metabolic competition by bacteria proliferating in a segment of small intestine excluded from normal peristaltic movement; it may occur as a postoperative complication of side-to-side anastomosis of intestine, as a result of intestinal diverticula, fistula, etc.

(Blind Loop Syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)