surgical denervation surgical avulsion nerve root avulsion 2014-02-27T17:29:08Z The surgical tearing apart of the nerve root, the part of a nerve adjacent to the center to which it is connected, from that center, for example, surgical separation of one or both of two bundles of nerve fibers (the posterior and anterior roots) from the spinal cord by tearing rather than cutting. XCO:0000401 experimental_condition_ontology jsmith