In medical terms, what is the difference beteween an operation and a surgery?

Answer 1

they are usually interchangeable terms

Answer 2

Surgery always involves cutting a person open while an operation doesn't. For example, you can have an operation in which they use instruments to go up in through your nose or another already existing opening in your body to get at your insides and work on your eyes, brain, sinuses, etc.

I used to have bladder stretching operations every three months when I was a child to take the pressure off of my kidneys due to a malfunctioning kidney valve. No incisions were ever made, so it was not surgery. (We won't discuss what natural openings they used, thank you.)

This is not technically surgery. Surgery involves an incision. The terms are often used interchangeably by people who don't recognize the distinction.

Answer 3

No difference. Some surgeries/operations involving extensive dissection of tissues are called "commando operations " by house officers just for fun.

Answer 4

Operation: A surgical procedure for remedying an injury, ailment, defect, or dysfunction.
Surgery: The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of injury, deformity, and disease by manual and instrumental means. A surgical operation or procedure, especially one involving the removal or replacement of a diseased organ or tissue.

Answer 5

No difference. Surgery is emotionaly more neutral so it evolved as being used when talking to people likely to freak out when 'operation' is used, but there is no difference between them.