An appendectomy is the medical operation in which doctors take out your appendix — the small finger-shaped tube that hangs off the large intestine. They do it when that tube is badly swollen or in danger of bursting, which is the usual story of appendicitis. For the patient it is “the operation”: sleep, a cut (or a few small keyhole cuts), the little tube gone, then rest. It is hospital English. Families more often say they took out the appendix. In Taiwan, people commonly talk as if the whole “blind gut” were being cut. Though actually the surgeon is after that small extra tube, not the whole pouch beside it. Once it is out, most people live an ordinary life without it.

闌尾切除手術。口語常說「割盲腸」，但醫生切的是闌尾，不是整段盲腸。