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Chapter 26: Medspeak:
Making Sense of Medical Jargon
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When
I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful
tone, it means just what I choose it to mean ---
neither more nor less.
- Lewis Carroll |
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Patients often complain that they can never understand
anything their doctor says. This usually because
doctors use medical jargon --- but you should never
get intimidated by this! You just need to remember
that such jargon is simply a convenient shorthand
which doctors ( and other health care professionals)
use to communicate with each other. Since these
words are often derived from the classic languages
( Greek and Latin), they may sound unfamiliar and
difficult to understand, but if you devote enough
time and take enough trouble, you can definitely
do so. Remember that it's not a secret code which
is being used to keep you in the dark! If you have
difficulty in understanding medical terms, you can
ask your doctor to help you. Nurses, or family members
in the medical profession, can also provide guidance.
However, the easiest way to go about making sense
of the jargon is to sit and decipher it with the
help of a medical dictionary and a medical encyclopedia:
the effort can prove very worthwhile! Spelling counts,
and the first and most important step is to find
out the proper medical terms and their spelling.
Therefore, ask your physician (or the nurse or assistant)
to write these down, as related to your specific
case.
The words - or terms - which make up the language of medicine are referred
to as the terminology of the medical field, or medical terminology. Like
every other language, medical terminology has changed considerably over
time, but the majority of the terms are derived from Latin or Greek.
As with all words, most medical terms can be broken
down into one or more word parts. Basically, there
are four possible parts, and any given medical term
may contain one, some or all of these parts:
- Roots,
- Prefixes,
- Suffixes, and
- Linking or combining vowels.
An example
of a word with three of the foregoing parts is the medical term pericarditis.
Pericarditis can be analysed for its meaning by dividing it into three
parts: peri-card-itis. Once divided into its essential parts, pericarditis
can be translated into ordinary English as follows:
The prefix 'peri' translates as surrounding (as in perimeter)
- The root 'card' translates to heart ( as in cardiology).
- The suffix 'itis' translates to inflammation.
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Thus, this
analysis allows us to conclude that pericarditis means inflammation of
the outer layer of the heart.
Medical terms always consist of at least one root, although they may contain
more. The root of a word is that part which contains its essential meaning:
for example, in the term pericarditis, the root of the word is card, refers
to the heart. By adding a prefix or suffix to the root (card), new medical
terms are created. For example, let's take the prefix brady, which means
slow. If brady is added to the root card, the term bradycard, which roughly
means slow heart, is created. Then, if the suffix ia - which means abnormal
state - is added to "bradycard", the medical term bradycardia
is formed. Thus, the translation of bradycardia (brady-card-ia) is: slow
- heart - abnormal state, or the abnormal state of a slow heart rate.
Let us move on to linking or combining vowels. As
just discussed, a medical term must have at least
one root, but need not have a prefix and/or a suffix.
An example of the term sternocleidomastoid, which
is a muscle that has attachments at the following
bones: the sternum, the clavicle, and the mastoid.
The term sternocleidomastoid can be divided into
three parts (three roots, in this case): stern -
o - cleid - o - mastoid. Notice that there are vowels
between the three roots which are linking or combining
vowels, and these serve to make a term easier to
pronounce. The vowel used most of the time is 'o',
but other vowels such as 'i' and 'a' are also used.
Combining vowels are often used between roots and
suffixes or roots and other roots, but they are
not used between prefixes and roots. Here are more
examples of how to " translate " medical jargon"
into a layperson's terms:
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Suffix
Definition Example
algia(or dynia-) Pain Neuralgia
blast - Early stage of a growth Cytotrophoblast
ectomy - Surgical removal Appendectomy
itis - Inflammation Bronchitis
lysis - Freeing of Adhesiolysis
oma - Tumor Melanoma
oscopy - Viewing Laparoscopy
osis - Process or condition Endometriosis
pathy - Abnormality Myopathy
plasty - To rebuild or restore Rhinoplasty
pnea - Breathing Apnea
rrhea - Flow Diarrhea
scler(osis)- Hardening Arteriosclerosis
uria - Pertaining to urine Glycosuria
One other reason why medical jargon can be so hard to decipher is that doctors make liberal use of acronyms. Acromyms are nothing but abbreviations, which they use as convenient shorthand to help doctors and nurses to communicate with each other. These acromyms are virtually an alphabetic potpourri. For instance:
- ICU: intensive care unit
- AMI: acute myocardial infarction
- BPH: benign prostatic hypertrophy
- IVF: in vitro fertilization
- IOL: intraocular lens.
If your doctor bombards you with acronyms or jargon, instead of being overwhelmed, please ask him to explain what the terms mean, so you can be are fully informed!
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