Desarticular

Desarticular is a Spanish verb meaning to separate at a joint or to disarticulate. It can refer to the surgical removal of a limb at a joint, the separation of bones at a joint, or the process of disassembling a skeleton into individual bones at their articulations. The related noun is desarticulación and the adjective desarticulado.

In medical usage, desarticular describes the act or process of disarticulating a limb, typically by surgically transecting the joint capsule and surrounding tissues. The procedure is called disarticulation and is distinct from amputation, which removes a limb without necessarily separating it at the joint, and from dislocation, which involves displacement of bones within a joint without full detachment.

Beyond clinical settings, the term is used in anatomy, paleontology, and veterinary medicine to refer to the separation of articulated bones for study, preparation, or documentation. It can apply to human remains, animal skeletons, or fossil specimens when joints are separated to facilitate examination or display.

Etymologically, desarticular derives from des- meaning apart and articular from articulus, the Latin term for a joint. The word appears in medical and anatomical texts across Spanish-language literature and is cognate with the English verb disarticulate.

See also: disarticulation, dislocation, amputation, articulation.