Unraveling Medical Terminology: A Guide for Nursing Students

1. Learning Medical Terminology For nursing students

2. It’s all Greek (or Latin) to me! Learning and understanding the roots of most words in the field of Health and Medicine can help you to understand what is being discussed ORIGIN OF MEDICAL TERMS 75% of medical terms are based on either Greek or Latin words.

3. Medical Terms You Probably Know • Appendectomy • Tonsillitis • Inflammation • Umbilical • gastritis

4. Categories of Medical Terms • Descriptive: • describes the shape, color, size, function Example: Erythrocyte (Erythr means red, cyte means cell)

5. Eponyms(giving name):terms named after a person (usually the first person to discovered or described a disease or organ) • Virginia Apgar – the Apgar score, used to determine the general health of neonate.

6. Eponyms • Example: Eustachian tubes are named after Bartolommeo Eustachii (1500-1574)

7. Categories of Medical Terms • 3. Acronyms: An abbreviation that forms apronouncible word • Examples: CT : Computed Tomography • CABG: coronary artery bypass graft • AIDS: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

8. CABG: coronary artery bypass graft

9. Test How did we get the name “Foley Catheter”

10. Test How did we get the name “Salmonella”?

11. Answers Dr. Frederick Foley (1891-1966) Dr. Daniel Salmon (1850-1914)

12. Basic Parts of Medical Words Roots: usually the middle of the word and its central meaning Prefix: a syllable at the beginning of the word which usually identifies some subdivision or part of the central meaning Suffix: comes at the end of the central meaning and refers to what or who is interacting or what is happening regarding it.

15. Myocarditis • Root: card (referring to the heart) • Prefix: myo (referring to the muscle) • Suffix: itis (inflammation) Meaning: inflammation of the muscle layer of the heart Read the meaning of medical terms from the suffix, back to the beginning of the term, and then across.

16. Myocarditis

17. Combining vowels is used between two elements of a medical term to make the term easier to pronounce Usually is the letter “O” but may be A, E, I, U or Y Root + combining Vowel + Element = Medical Term Gastr o enteric = gastroenteric

18. ELECTR O CARDI O GRAM • GASTR O ENTER IT IS • Colon + o + scope = colonoscope • (colon) (instrument to view)

19. Examples GASTR O ENTER O LOGY (ROOT) (ROOT) (SUFFIX) GASTR O SCOPE (ROOT) (SUFFIX) GASTR IC (ROOT) (SUFFIX)

20. Oste + o + arthr + itis = osteoarthritis (bone) (joint) (inflammation)

21. Stethoscope

22. Some Root word • cardi = heart • gastr or ventr = stomach • hepat = liver • nephr or ren = kidney • oste or ossi = bone • thorac or steth = chest • arthr = joint • cyt = root for cell • derm = skin

23. Suffixes • A suffix is a word ending. Changing the suffix gives medical words a new meaning. • Usually indicates a procedure, condition, disorder or disease. • Most suffixes are derived from Greek or Latin words. (A suffix that is well known is – ology – the study of)

24. Suffixes – terms used in surgery • Enterotomy • Appendectomy • Gastrorrhaphy • Cystoplasty • Tomy – cut or incision • Ectomy-removal • Rhaphy- sewing • Plasty – molding/repair

25. Rhino = nose • What is this procedure?

26. Quick review of surgical terms • Nephrotomy is… • Gastroplasty is… • Appendectomy is… • Incision of the kidney • Surgical operation for morbid obesity that changes the shape of the stomach • Removal/cutting of appendix Source: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp

27. Suffixes • Arthr/o + centesis = arthrocentesis (joint) (puncture) • Thorac/o + -tomy = thoracotomy (chest) (incision) • Gastro/o + -megaly = gastromegaly (stomach) (enlargement)

28. Suffix-disease/change in body/usedfor diagnoses • Hepatitis: hepa - liver; itis- inflammation of • Splenomegaly: Spleno – spleen; megaly-large • Arteriosclerosis: arterio-artery; sclerosis-hardening of • Cardiogram: cardio-heart; gram - record or write • Laparoscopy: laparo-abdomen; scopy- to look in or search

30. Suffixes: at the end of a word • SUFFIXMEANINGEXAMPLE • al pertaining to neural • Algia pain arthralgia • cyte cell leukocyte • ectomy removal, excision gastrectomy • Emia blood condition leukemia • globin protein hemoglobin • Gram record (xray) arthrogram • ia condition hyperglycemia • ic pertaining to gastric

31. Suffixes • ism condition, process hypothyroidism • itis inflammation appendicitis • logistspecialist in the neurologist study of • logy study of neurology • oma tumor, mass hepatoma • opsy to view biopsy • osis abnormal condition nephrosis • plasty surgical repair arthroplasty (with hardware)

32. Hepatoma

33. Suffixes • scope visual exam with gastroscope an instrument • scopy visual exam arthroscopy • (with an instrument) • sis state of prognosis • tomy cutting into, appendectomy incision • uni one unilateral

34. Test What do you think is the name of the surgical procedure pictured in the next slide?

36. Prefixes

37. PREFIXES A prefix is a word element located at the beginning of a word. • Prefixes can alter the meaning of the word. • Usually indicates • a number, time,position, direction, color,

38. prefix • peri - prefix means around (pericardium) • hemi - prefix means half (hemiplegia) • micro - prefix means small (microcephaly) • Neo - prefix means new (neonatal)

39. Some Prefixes • Peri + cardio + logy = pericardiology (around) (heart-pericardium) (study of) • Hyper + therm + -ia = hyperthermia (excessive) ( heat) (condition) • Intra + muscul + -ar = intramuscular (in, within) (muscle) (relating to) • Macro + gloss + -ia = macroglossia (large - enlargement) (tongue) (condition)

40. Cardi ---? heart. Do you remember what cardi means? – it is a root that means … • -ogist – suffix that means one who • -ology – is a suffix that means the study of ----------------------------------------------- So Cardiology is… Cardiologist is… the study of the heart. one who studies the heart.

41. Prefixes: At the beginning of a word PrefixMeaningExample A, an no, not, without Apnea Ab away from abduction Ad toward adduction Ana up, apart analysis Ante before, forward antepartum Anti against antibody Bi two, both bilateral

42. Prefixes Brady slow bradycardia Circum around circumoral Con with, together congenital Contra against contraindicated Dys bad, painful, difficult,abnormal dysuria dyspnea

43. Prefixes • Ec out, outside ectopic pregnancy • Endo within, in, inner endoscopy • Epi above, upon epidermis • Ex out excision • Extra extra extrahepatic • Hemi half hemiplegia • Hyper too much, above hyperthyroidism • Hypo deficient, too little hypothermia

44. Prefixes • In in, into incision • Inter between intervertebral • Intra within intravenous • Mal bad malignant • Mega big megakaryocyte • Meta change, beyond metastasis • Micro small microscopic • Neo new neonatal

45. Prefixes • Para beside, near, alongside of parathyroid • Peri surrounding periosteum • Poly many, much polyuria • Post after, behind postpartum • Pre before precancerous • Pro before, forward prolapse • Pros before, forward prosthesis

46. Prefixes • Quadri four quadriplegia • Re back, behind relapse • Retro back, behind retroperitoneal • Sub under, less than subcutaneous • Syn with, together syndrome • Tachy Fast tachycardia • Trans across, through transabdominal • Tri three tricuspid valve

47. Review quiz 1. The part of the word which gives the basic meaning to the word is called the ___________. stem

48. 2. Dermatology is _____________________________. The study of skin The branch of medicine concerned with the study of the skin, diseases of the skin, and the relationship of cutaneous lesions to systemic disease http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php?t=23957

49. 3. Osteo is a stem which means bone. A person who has osteo-arthritis, for example, has inflammation of the ______ and joint. bone

50. 4. Rhino and naso are stems which mean nose. A person who has rhinitis has inflammation of the __________. nose