Medical Terms and Abbreviations

If you’re an aspiring medical practitioner or allied healthcare professional, then chances are you would be encountering tons of medical terms and abbreviations in your work. Without proper training, you’d be at sea every day. This is why you have to receive proper training whether for medical transcription or coding to familiarize yourself with medical terminology.

Medical terms are divided into sections and categorized based on areas of medical knowledge. Here are some terms that you may encounter from the surgical, obstetrics, and podiatric fields.

Surgical
Surgical words are often used in the healthcare information management field. They are a staple to your everyday work, whether you’re a medical transcriptionist, coder or biller. Found below are a few of them. You may notice that some of them are spelled or pronounced similarly.
•  Auvray
•  Bar’s
•  Battle
•  Bergmann’s
•  Bevan’s
•  blunt and sharp
•  buttonhole
•  Cherney
•  Chernez
•  chevron
•  circular

Podiatric
Podiatric medicine is the field of medicine that deals with treating different disorders relating to the ankle, foot and lower extremities. You’ll encounter medical words from this field since the older generation are often treated for joint and muscle ailments associated with the lower extremities. Here are a few medical words starting with A that you may encounter while on the job:
abductor (muscle)
achillobursitis
aclasis – pathological continuity of structure
acrodermatitis enteropathica
acrokeratosis paraneoplastica – Bazex syndrome
adductor (muscle)
adiposis dolorosa – Dercum disease
aDWF – ankle Doppler wave form
AFO – ankle-foot orthosis
alligator skin – ichthyosis congenita
allylamines – e.g. Naftin (naftifine)
angle, DMMA – distal metatarsal articular, Engel, Fowler-Philip, Kite, talo-first, Taygar
ankylosis
anserinoplasty
antalgic gait
AOFS hindfoot ankle score
apophysitis
aPVR – ankle pulse volume recording
atavistic tarsometatarsal joint
athlete’s foot – tinea pedis, ringworm of the feet
atavism

Obstetrical
Obstetrics words are words used in Gynecology or Obstetrics. These words pertain to the reproductive systems of women and may often denote the status of their pregnancy or birth-giving. Here are a few samples of these words:
T=term births
P=preterm births (prior to 37 weeks gestation)
A=abortions
L=living children

G gravida (number of pregnancies)
P para (number of births of viable offspring)
A or Ab abortus (abortions)

And here are some of the abbreviations that you may encounter as well. These are abbreviations starting with J and K. You might notice that you use some of them on a daily basis. 

JVD - jugular venous distention
JVP - jugular venous pressure
JP - Jackson-Pratt (drainage tube)
K - Potassium
Kcal - kilocalorie
KCI - potassium chloride
Kg - kilogram
Kg-cal - kilogram calorie
Kilo - kilogram
KUB - kidney, ureter, bladder (x-ray)
K-wire - Kirschner wire

For further information on medical terminology abbreviations, visit Meditec’s resource tools page. Meditec is a premier career training provider for various kinds of professionals. The company specializes on allied healthcare career training and offers free guides and resources relating to the field.