inosculation

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in·os·cu·late

(ĭn-ŏs′kyə-lāt′)

v. in·os·cu·lat·ed, in·os·cu·lat·ing, in·os·cu·lates

v.tr.

1. To unite (blood vessels, nerve fibers, or ducts) by small openings.

2. To make continuous; blend.

v.intr.

1. To open into one another.

2. To unite so as to be continuous; blend.

[in- + Latin ōsculāre, ōsculāt-, to provide with an opening (from ōsculum, diminutive of ōs, mouth; see ōs- in Indo-European roots).]

in·os′cu·la′tion n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

inosculation - a natural or surgical joining of parts or branches of tubular structures so as to make or become continuous

anastomosis

colligation, conjugation, conjunction, junction - the state of being joined together

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The wide difference of the fish on opposite sides of continuous mountain-ranges, which from an early period must have parted river-systems and completely prevented their inosculation, seems to lead to this same conclusion.

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This robust blood supply provided a more homogenous granulation bed for inosculation of the graft.

Successful, Full-Thickness Skin Graft in a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Inosculation of tissue-engineered capillaries with the host's vasculature in a reconstructed skin transplanted on mice.