In medicine, therapeutic irrigation or lavage (icon or ˈ ) is a general term referring to cleaning or rinsing.

Specific types include:

• Antiseptic lavage
  Antiseptic lavage
  Antiseptic lavage is a means of washing, especially of a hollow organ, such as the stomach or lower bowel, with repeated injections of warm water mixed with an antiseptic or antifungal solution. Antiseptic lavages are commonly used as a treatment to pericoronitis of wisdom teeth....
  
  
• Bronchoalveolar lavage
  Bronchoalveolar lavage
  Bronchoalveolar lavage is a medical procedure in which a bronchoscope is passed through the mouth or nose into the lungs and fluid is squirted into a small part of the lung and then recollected for examination. BAL is typically performed to diagnose lung disease...
  
  
• Gastric lavage
  Gastric lavage
  Gastric lavage, also commonly called stomach pumping or Gastric irrigation, is the process of cleaning out the contents of the stomach. It has been used for over 200 years as a means of eliminating poisons from the stomach. Such devices are normally used on a person who has ingested a poison or...
  
  
• Peritoneal lavage
  Diagnostic peritoneal lavage
  Diagnostic peritoneal lavage is a procedure where, after application of local anesthesia, a vertical skin incision is made one third of the distance from the umbilicus to the pubic symphysis. The linea alba is divided and the peritoneum entered after it has been picked up to prevent bowel...
  
  
• Arthroscopic lavage
  Arthroscopic lavage
  "Lavage" means 'washing'. To lavage a joint means to wash out any blood, fluid or loose debris from inside the joint space.Arthroscopic lavage is generally combined with arthroscopic debridement, where fronds of joint material or degenerative tissue are removed using a combination of injected fluid...
  
  
• Ductal lavage
  Ductal lavage
  Ductal lavage is a method used to collect cells from milk ducts in the breast. A hair-size catheter is inserted into the nipple, and a small amount of salt water is released into the duct. The water picks up breast cells, and is removed. The cells are checked under a microscope...
  
  
• Ear lavage
• Pulsed lavage is delivering an irrigant (usually normal saline) under direct pressure that is produced by an electrically powered device, and is useful in cleaning e.g. chronic wound
  Chronic wound
  A chronic wound is a wound that does not heal in an orderly set of stages and in a predictable amount of time the way most wounds do; wounds that do not heal within three months are often considered chronic....
  
  s.

Etymology

The French noun lavage was imported intact into medical English, which explains the French-like pronunciation. The word comes from the French verb laver, "to wash", which comes from the Latin verb lavāre. However, the word has been more or less naturalized, thus the naturalized variant pronunciation..