An enterotomy is a surgical incision in the intestine — the deliberate cut a surgeon makes to enter the bowel. It is performed to remove a foreign body or gallstone impacted in the lumen, to take a full-thickness biopsy, or to access the inside of the gut during complex procedures; the incision is then closed with meticulous suturing, since any leak of intestinal contents into the abdomen causes peritonitis. The word distinguishes the planned surgical opening from traumatic perforation or from an enterostomy, which creates a lasting stoma rather than a closed cut. Bowel surgery’s central discipline is the safe enterotomy — opened, treated, and sealed without contamination. In an era of laparoscopic and endoscopic alternatives, the open enterotomy remains the fallback when the bowel must be entered directly and decisively.