Sometimes medical jargons can be hard for an
average person to understand...

Why bother myself with the meaning of medical
terminologies when I'm not a medical personnel,
you may ask. See, life has no duplicate and
therefore it is absolutely unwise to be carefree
about things that concern your health, okay!

Hold on a sec, before you further justify your
lazy-self or lackadaisical attitude towards your
health with the usual line- "let the experts do
their thing," lemme remind you that there's no
medical expert anywhere in the world that can
manage your health better than you. I guess
that makes you an expert too...

So, my little advice is- you should always see yourself as a professional partnering with your healthcare
providers to fix your medical problems and not a
completely naive person. As an expert, you really
need to know the meaning of at least a handful
of medical jargons.

Need I tell you that knowing the meaning of
couple of medical words will do you a lot of
good in a country like Nigeria...

So, I have compiled a list of some medical
terminologies or medical jargons commonly used
by most medical personnels in Nigeria and their
meaning.
Source: www.sproutby.com/2016/02/medical-jargons-medical-words-terms-Nigeria.html?m=1

Source: www.sproutby.com/2016/02/medical-jargons-medical-words-terms-Nigeria.html?m=1

100+ Medical Jargons Worth Knowing:

1. Gravida -- is a medical term (a latin word)
that describes the total number of
pregnancies a woman has had, regardless of
the outcome of the pregnancies. For
example, nulligravida refers to a woman who
has never been pregnant before; primigravida
means first- time pregnant and multi-gravida
means many pregnancies.
2. Partum -- is a latin word which means
childbirth or delivery, as in prepartum(before
delivery or during labour) and post partum
(after delivery).
3. Para -- is a medical jargon that indicates the
total number of pregnancies a woman has
carried for more than 20 weeks ( a viable
gestational age), regardless of whether the
outcome of the pregnancy is a stillbirth or
live birth. For example, nullipara refers to a
woman who has never given birth before,
while multi para means many births including
stillbirths.
4. Dystocia -- the prefix dys means abnormal or
difficult in Greek, and tocia was derived from
a Greek word - tokos (which means
childbirth). Therefore dystocia means difficult
childbirth or delivery. Sometimes doctors
mention the specific type such as labour
dystocia (meaning, obstructed labour), fetal
dystocia which also means abnormal fetal
size...
5. PID -- Pelvic Inflammatory Disease is an
infection which is common with females. In
most cases, it is caused by STDs such as
gonorrheal and chlamydia.
6. Ectopic pregnancy -- refers to pregnancy
outside the uterus. It's also called tubal
pregnancy.
7. Trimester -- literally, it means 3 months...
But in medicine, it is a term used to describe
the phases or stages of pregnancies. In
obstetrics, pregnancy is divided into 3 stages
of fetal development - namely: first trimester
( 0 to 13 weeks); second trimester ( 14 to 26
weeks) and third trimester ( 27 to 40 weeks).
8. C/O -- this is a short form of "complain of."
Health providers use it to indicate patient's
complaint.
9. Dialysis -- is a medical procedure for
removing waste products and excess fluids
from the body of a patient with kidney failure
or damaged kidney. It is an artificial
alternative for blood cleansing...
10. cap -- it is a short form of capsule.
11. tab -- a short form of tablet.
12. Rx -- is a latin verb - "recipe" - which means
"take thus". It refers to a doctor's
prescription.
13. Dx -- refers to diagnosis or disease.
14. Fx -- is a medical jargon that means fracture
15. tds -- means three times daily (refers to how
a drug is to be taken)

Source: www.sproutby.com/2016/02/medical-jargons-medical-words-terms-Nigeria.html?m=1

16. Nocte -- means night only. Whenever you see
nocte on your prescription note, it means you
should take that particular drug at night
only.
17. PRN -- "pro re nata" means as necessary or
when needed. Talking about drugs, when prn
is written, you can take such drug as
necessary and when needed.
18. Stat -- a Latin word - "satim" which means
immediately or instantly. Health
professionals use this medical jargon to
indicate that a medication be taken
immediately or urgently.
19. BP -- means blood pressure ( the force with
which blood moves through the blood
vessels).
20. HTN -- stands for hypertension.
21. DM -- stands for diabetes mellitus.
22. IM -- stands for intramuscular. This is a
medical word that indicates that a
medication be administered through the
muscles.
23. H/O or Hx -- means history of. This is a
record of patients' medical background.
24. COPD -- stands for chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease. This is a lung disease
that makes breathing difficult for affected
persons.
25. Hepatitis -- this is a virus that invades and
damages the liver.
26. Abortifacient -- a medical term that describes
any substance or medical product used for
inducing abortion.
27. Leukemia -- refers to cancer of the blood
cells which starts in the bone marrow.
28. Spontaneous Abortion -- commonly called
miscarriage, this is simply the lost of
pregnancies of less than 20 weeks old (of
non- viable gestational age).
29. Abscess -- refers to a collection of fluids
called pus. For example, skin abscess is
known as boil.
30. Hematologist -- a medical word that
describes a physician specializing in
diagnosing and treatment of blood and bone
marrow related diseases.

31. Arrhythmia -- also called dysrrhythmia - it means abnormal heart rhythm or irregular heartbeat rate. 32. IV -- stands for intravenous, which means "inside the vein". It is used to indicate that a medication or fluid be administered through the vein. 33. Cardiologist -- a doctor that specializes in diagnosing and treatment of heart related diseases. 34. Tx -- is a medical jargon that means treatment. 35. Otitis Media -- is an ear infection that affects the middle ear (the area close to a person's eardrum). 36. ENT -- stands for ear, nose and throat. An ENT specializes in diagnosing and the treatment of ear, nose and throat related diseases. 37. Anesthesia -- refers to any substance (drug or agent) used for inducing (artificial) loss of sensation (ability to feel pain). 38. ECG -- stands for Electrocardiogram. It's a test that monitors the electrical activity of the heart. 39. VOC -- stands for vaso-occlusive crisis. This is a common sickle cell crisis that is triggered by obstruction of circulation of blood vessels by sickled red blood cells, it's often accompanied by severe pain. 40. Hyperplasis -- means enlargement or expansion of an organ or tissue as a result of increase in reproduction of its cells. 41. Anoxia -- indicates low oxygen (oxygen deficiency). 42. Angina Pectoris -- this is a medical word for chest pain (often severe) caused by inadequate flow of oxygen to the heart muscle. 43. Meningitis -- refers to a serious (and mostly contagious) brain and spinal cord (collectively known as meninges) disease often caused by viral or bacterial or fungal infection. 44. OPV -- stands for oral polio vaccine. This is an effective and safe polio-virus vaccine administered by mouth. 45. Dental caries -- this is a medical phrase that means tooth decay or cavities caused by bacterial activities. 46. LMP -- stands for last menstrual period. It means the date when you last saw your period ( menstrual flow). 47. Cardiomegaly -- this medical terminology simply means "enlarged heart," it's mostly caused by high blood pressure or coronary artery heart disease. 48. Lipoma -- refers to that soft and slow- growing fat (non cancerous) lump situated under a person's skin. 49. Mammogram -- this medical jargon describes X-ray image of the breast for detection of cancer in women. It's also called breast screening. 50. Cyst -- cysts are sac-like structures (filled with liquid or gaseous or solid materials) that can grow or form on the skin, organs and other tissues of the body.

FBC -- stands for full blood count. This is a
laboratory screening for assessing a person's
general health and checking for some
specific conditions such as anemia,
infections and some other diseases.
52. Anemia -- also spelt - anaemia is simply the
deficiency of red blood cells. It's a blood
disorder.
53. OPD -- stands for outpatient's department.
54. G.P -- stands for general practitioner. This is
a non specialist physician- a GP offers more
of primary healthcare. These guys are the
first point of contact in healthcare...
55. EDD -- stands for expected date of delivery
or estimated due date.
56. Endoscopy -- is a flexible instrument used by
a physician to look inside the body (basically
to examine digestive system).
57. Myomectomy -- this is a medical terminology
used to describe the procedure for the
removal of uterine fibroids.
58. Appendicitis -- describes the inflammation of
the appendix (a finger like tube attached to
the tip of the large intestine of a person). In
other words, it's a condition in which the
appendix is swollen and hurting...
59. Abiotic -- means not biological.
60. BPH -- stands for benign prostatic
hyperplasis. It means noncancerous prostate
enlargement.
Read the complete article here ------->
Source: www.sproutby.com/2016/02/medical-jargons-medical-words-terms-Nigeria.html?m=1

nice one Op! thumbs up 4u! ive really learnt a lot 4rm this thread......plss keep up the good works.....waiting 2 learn more terms 4rm u!

I'm not familiar with any of these terminologies, I haven't ever heard about them before. I wasn't even sure of what epitalon means. All in all though, I'm very familiar with these terminologies now.