hello and welcome to emergency care in the streets chapter 7 medical terminology after you complete this chapter and the related coursework you will understand the purpose of medical terminology be familiar with the names of the four word components used to build medical terms and be able to cite examples know the anatomic position and why it's used know the planes of the body understand the importance of accurate medical terminology and no standard medical abbreviations acronyms and symbols and which ones to avoid okay so let's get started as a paramedic you must develop a strong working knowledge of medical terminology international language of medicine and healthcare it's used to describe and record every aspect of patient care including medical history assessment results treatment and outcomes you should understand the origin of medical terms the components and the guidelines for firm forming words inaccurate use of medical terminology can cause administration of ineffective or harmful treatment or patient could lose trust in the paramedic's ability four effective communication and documentation you must comprehend key terms acronyms symbols and abbreviations understand medical terminology requires you to break down each word into several or separate components and have a working knowledge of these parts you also must be able to learn the accepted terms in your local area and determine if your emergency medical services systems have lists of pre-approved medical abbreviations and terms you should also have a working knowledge of common slang terms like boarding a patient for transport or bagging or tubing for airway management to expand your vocabulary to be able to deliver better care is another reason when you should understand medical terminology and so you should download the medical terminology app or download an app and carry a field guide or documentation handbook okay so let's get into the origins understanding the origins of medical terms helps you decipher the meaning of the terms most medical terms have greek and latin origins words that refer to diseases are derived from greek words words that refer to anatomic structures are derived from latin terms the table shows select terms with greek and latin origins eponyms are names of diseases devices procedures or drugs that are based on the person who invented them discovered or first described them example diesel engine is named for its german inventor ruled ruled off diesel sometimes eponyms appear in the possessive form such as hodgkin's disease or hodgkin disease often include the name of the physician or surgeon first associated in some way with them so the mcbarney point or the foley catheter the babinski reflex crohn's disease cesarean cessation or levine sign or apgar score medical terminology can use a single word to express a concept that would have taken many words for example arthritis versus inflammation of the joint homonyms are pairs of words that are produced almost the same way for example ilium it's the last anatomic portion of the small intestines versus ilium the largest bone of the pelvis good example is dysphagia which is difficulty eating or swallowing versus dysphagia which is uh difficulty speaking dysphagia incorrect pronunciation of medical terms can lead to misdiagnosis or other serious medical errors antonyms are pairs of root or word roots prefixes or suffixes that have the opposite meaning of another word and synonyms are pairs of word roots prefixes or suffixes that have the same or almost the same meaning so pneumologist versus homologists both refer to the lung and pneumologist simply has not gained acceptance components of the medical term so when you encounter an unfamiliar word break it up into its components parts if you know the meaning of each part you can then combine the definitions to determine the broader meaning of the word medical terms are composed of distinct parts that perform specific functions so let's break these parts down you have the prefix and that's a portion that appears before the word root you have the suffix and that's the portion that appears after the word root the word root is the foundation of the term a combining vowel is a vowel that links one or more word roots to another component of a term the way in which the parts of a word are combined determines its meaning changing or deleting any part of the term can alter its contents accurate spelling is essential so hyperglycemia is too much blood in the glucose versus hypoglycemia is too little blood in the glucose and that is just one or two slight letters difference prefixes so common in general language such as autopilot or sub in submarine or tri and tricycle and medical and specific terminology so they appear at the beginning of the word and generally describe the location or intensity of the word root that follows and you can change the meaning of a medical term by describing the what how when or why of the word root so cutaneous means skin if you add a sub it means below the skin so subcutaneous learn to recognize a few commonly used medical prefixes so um a prefix of hypo that means low plus word root of volume plus suffix of emia and that's blood so hypovolemia means low blood volume prefix of hypo plus the word root of glyco plus an anemia so hypoglycemia is low blood glucose and then you have numeric prefixes so these are used to indicate the number of sides limbs or sensory organs affected all right so an example is monocular vision sample of a numerical prefix is time so octogenarian is a person between 80 and 89 years of age suffixes so components added to the ends of the word roots that change and add to its meaning the words meaning or provide further definition so in medical term a suffix usually specifies a procedure conditioned disease or a part of a speech a's indicates an enzyme and lip is fats so lip plus ace lipase is an enzyme enzyme that digests fats suffixes are able to change the medical term to a noun or adjective as needed so now let's talk about word roots it's the main part of the word sometimes called the root word it establishes establishes the essential meaning of the word and frequently indicates a body part prefixes are added to the beginning of the word roots suffixes of course as we said earlier are added to the ends and changing the prefix or suffix will change the meaning of the term consider the context of the word before assigning its meaning the same word root may have different meanings in different fields of studies here are several word roots that describe color and that's table 7-5 combining forms and vowels so some word roots prefixes and suffixes cannot combine with other forms without help okay so sometimes it's necessary to change the last letter or the last few letters of the word root or a prefix to ease pronunciation when the suffix is added combining valves facilitate the formation of new more complex terms often it consists of an o added to the word root so combining form so word root prefix or suffix with an added vowel is a combining vowel an example of this would be osteopathic so the word root is osteon osteo plus pathic so bone plus disease right example another example is a gastromegaly so the word root is gassed right and then of course we add that o onto it so that makes a gastro and then megaly right and so that's the stomach and it's irregular enlargement the suffix begins with a vowel a combining vowel is not needed so gastric so you see it's an ic um and so then um the o is not needed following these guidelines when adding combining vowels to root words so use a combining valve before a subset suffix that begins with a consonant so uh cytology right so you see the cytology use a combining vowel to join other word roots example gastroenteritis do not use a combining vowel before a suffix that begins with a valve so you have gastritis versus gastro o e itis common combining forms and valves so um common is the lology so the study of okay so cardiology or neurology so the study of the heart or the study of the nervous system okay we're going to talk about compound words next so compound words contain one contain more than one word root each word root contains its basic meaning so simple examples containing two word roots are electrocardiogram or thermometer more complicated um words are ostoarthritis so ost is bone and arthro means joint or joints and itis is inflammation so osteoarthritis means inflammation of the bone joints and now we'll talk about plural endings so to change a term from singular to plural form there are certain rules that apply sometimes you can simply add an s lung becomes lungs but some rules are more complicated singular words that end in an a change to an ae when plural example vertebra becomes vertebrae singular words that end in is changed it to es when plural example diagnosis becomes diagnoses singular words that end in an ex or ix change to i i-c-e-s blood this is apex becomes apices singular words that end in o n or um change to a examples is gate ganglion becomes ganglia or ovom becomes ova singular words that end in u.s change to eye so an example is bronchus becomes bronchi so let's talk about some topographic anatomy so there are superficial landmarks on the body that serve as guides to the structures that lie beneath them taken together these features make up the body's topography familiarize yourself with the landmarks to perform a thorough assessment imagine the body in the anatomic position to describe topography accurately and so the person in an anatomic position is standing facing you arms to his or her sides with palms facing forwards thumbs point away from the body okay the position is a shared reference point so the meaning of various directional terms stays consistent regardless of the body position or movement so let's talk about some planes and axises of the body so you have the anatomic plane of the body and that's an imaginary flat surface dividing the body horizontally and vertically into sections an axis is an imaginary line that divides the body equally and creates a point of rotation so there's a great photo on this slide and we're going to talk about these different planes and accesses okay so the body is divided along three main axises to create the following planes we have the coronal plane and that slices the body vertically from ear to ear dividing it into front which is ventral and back which is dorsal portions also called the frontal plane cornea corner means head then you have the transverse plane this passes horizontally through the body at the waist it creates a top and bottom portions it's also called the axial plane then you have a sagittal plane um it's also called lateral plane and it divides the body vertically slicing it from front to back also called the lateral plane sagitta is latin for arrow midsagittal plain it's the midline and it divides the body into equal left and right halves your nose and navel are found along this imaginary line three axises along which the body can be divided are you have the antroposterior axis and it runs perpendicular to the corneal line or plane and you have the longitudinal axis it runs perpendicular to the transverse plane and then you have the horizontal axis and it's also called the medial lateral axis and it runs perpendicular to the sagittal plane these planes and axises help to identify the location of internal structures so understand the relationships between and among the organs a cross section slicing across an object perpendicular to the long axis as you would do if you wanted to count the rings of a tree trunk a longitudinal section is a view of an object cut along the long axis so this is accomplished with a camera or a beam of radiation so let's get into specific areas of the body so many body areas have specific names familiarizing yourself with the body region will help you to understand help you communicate with other professionals and break down other terms an example of this is the sternocleidom clydomastoid a combination of sterno clydo and mastoid which refers to the sternum clavicle and mastoid process if you understand the roots you will be able to locate the origin and insertion of the large neck muscle the table on this slide shows terminology associated with specific body regions it's also in chapter 7 and it's a table eight so 7-8 and then on this table you're going to also see some terminology associated with body specific regions okay next we're going to talk about body cavities so the human body cavities contain various organs and other structures these cavities can be grouped into two categories you have the dorsal and that's the posterior and then the ventral that's the anterior the dorsal cavities are the posterior cavities i also i always think of dorsal fin like as if on a dolphin you have the cranial cavity and it contains the brain and the spinal cavity that surrounds the spinal cord you have ventral cavities um those are anterior the thoracic cavity encloses the heart lungs and great vessels you have the abdominal cavity and that holds several digestive and endocrine organs then you have the pelvic cavity that contains digestive organs and female re reproductive organs the abdominal and pelvic cavities can be referred to together as the abdominal pelvic cavity the retroperitoneal cavity is separate from and lies posterior to the abdominal cavity and contains different organs most notably the kidneys so this is a really good slide and it shows the body cavities okay so next we're going to talk about directional terms and you use these to describe relative positions of body parts and imaginary anatomic divisions so use these correct directional terms to describe the location of pain or an injury and so this figure shows common directional terms and let's talk about them now so directional terms in medicine tend to occur in pairs because every direction has an opposite direction so superior and inferior lateral and medial proximal and distal superficial and deep anterior and posterior and palmar and plantar and apex so we're going to go through those individually in the next couple slides okay you have the superior versus the inferior so superior is a part of the any body part in which the portion is closest to the head so superior obviously just what it sounds like closest to the head so the part closest to the feet is inferior and also used to describe the relationship of one structure to the other so example the knee is superior to the foot and inferior to the pelvis the next directional term we're going to talk about is lateral and medial okay so parts of the body that lie further away from the midline are described as lateral outer the parts that lie closer to the midline are described as medial or inner example the knee has medial and lateral aspects proximal and distal so proximal describes structures that are closer to the body and we talk about this when we talk about the trunk so such as a fracture to the proximal humerus would involve the end of the bone that is closest to the shoulder and distal indicate structures that are farther away from the trunk or nearer to the free end of the extremity and fracture to the distal humerus is one that involves the end of the bone further from the body so we use these terms to describe relationships of one structure to another and usually what i i think of is that we use them for the appendicular skeleton right superficial and deep of course superficial means closest to the surface of the skin deep is farther inside the body and away from the skin anterior and posterior so we talked a little bit about that so anterior or ventral refers to the belly side posterior or dorsal refers to the spinal side of the body including the back of the hand in human medicine use anterior and posterior ventral and dorsal are used in other sciences okay and then palmer and plantar the front region of the hand is referred to as the palm or palmer surface and the bottom of the foot is referred to as the plantar surface and then apex the apex or pleural apices is the tip of the structures so example the apex of the heart is the bottom or inferior portion of the ventrals in the left side of the chest all right now that we've gone through some directional terms now we're going to move on to movement and positional terms all movement can be broken down into simple components and described with specific terms and accepted set of terms describes body movement so particularly useful in explaining mechanism of injury range of motion is the full distance that a joint can be moved so we use that term range of motion and these are the common um movement and positional terms so first we're going to talk about flexation so when you're moving the distal point of the extremity towards the trunk while in the anatomic position examples you flex the elbow and it brings the hand closer to the shoulder so flexation of the knee brings the foot up to the buttocks dorsiflexion is the movement of the foot towards the dorsal aspect plantar flexation is the movement of the foot towards the sole extension is the return of the body part from the flex position to the anatomic position abduction is the movement a way from the midline and adduction is the movement towards the midline they use that um enunciate the the beginning of it right because so so ab is a way add is towards and then a patient's neck can be in one of several positions when found when you find the patient laying supine right so the neck we refer to you could use the prefix hyper and this is added to the terms flexation or extension to include the mechanism of injury so hyper indicates a normal range of motion for a particular joint was maximized or overextended such as hyperflexion right so maximum flexion or flexion beyond the normal range of motion an example would be a hyperflexion injury of the back can occur when bending or hyperextension is a maximum extension or extension beyond the normal range of motion so example would be an injury that occurs when a person falls on an outstretched hand this results in a distal radius fracture wrist injuries can also be described using the terms sublimation or pronation so sublimation is turning the palms towards the sky upward or towards the sky pronation is turning the palms downward towards the ground and then there's rotational deformities so an internal rotation is a turning the anterior portion of the extremity towards the midline and an external rotation is turning the extremity away from the midline so rotational deformities are noted when comparing an injured extremity to an uninsured extremity so hips can be dislocated anteriorly or positionally or posteriorly the term rotation can also be applied to the spine and then there's other directional terms that are very common that you'll hear often and a term like bilateral is a body part of condition that appears on both sides of the midline so you can have ears eyes feet hands structures inside the body also appear on both sides of the midline such as lungs and kidneys then you could you'll hear a term unilateral and that's something that appears on only one side of the body so an example is the spleen is only on the left side of the body it's unilateral unilateral and bilateral can also describe the location of pain numbness itching or another phenomena so contralateral refers to the opposite side of the body an ipsilateral refers to the same side of the body you must be able to describe the exact location of areas in the abdomen so the abdomen is divided into four quadrants and you could see that on the slide and the right upper quadrant left upper quadrant right lower quadrant and left lower quadrant the quadrants are formed from two lines intersection at the umbilicus again right and left refer to the patient's right and left not ears and then to describe even more specifically the abdomen can be divided into nine regions okay so prefixes indicating position direction and location so they're specialized pre-lit fixes and they are used to specify position direction and location these terms can describe movement of the body or something within it so like a blood clot or a tumor how it metastasizes the location of organ foreign body or mass or surgical procedures and medical instruments used to perform them and direction of radiation or ultrasound waves and then there's the position of the patient so we use specific terms to describe the patient's position and the you'll hear the term prone if a patient is laying face down supine is a position when the patient's laying face up fowler's position is a patient sitting straight up with his knees bent or straight and then semi fallers is when the patient sits up at a 45 degree angle generally a position of comfort for those who do not need spinal immobilization and then a very common position of the patient that you're going to hear is called the recovery position this helps maintain a clear airway in an unresponsive patient and prevents aspiration and vomitus a patient is lying on his or her left side with the head resting on the bottom arm the knee is bent angling the front of the patient's body slightly towards the floor or ground also referred to as left lateral recumbent position and this figure shows the anatomic position so this is great so you have um uh basically supine prone and then the recovery position all right so then you're going to have abbreviations acronyms and symbols and medical abbreviations acronyms and symbols are a type of shorthand that's used to communicate in the medical world so it's developed to allow us to communicate faster do not trade speed for accuracy though use only commonly understood acronyms and abbreviations to minimize misinterpretations and errors all acronyms are abbreviations but not all abbreviations are acronyms okay so when you use the abbreviation pronounce each letter of the abbreviation separately and distinctly for the abbreviation e m t say e m t acronyms for shorthand words from the initials of several words are produced a new word or phrase so an example of urban search and rescue becomes usar an abbreviation is still considered an acronym if it is pronounced as a word even if the word is formed isn't part of the english language example is hipaa so the health insurance portability and accountability act is an acronym because it's pronounced as hipaa example dea is not an acronym because it isn't spelled out like dea medical abbreviations take the place of words to shorten documentation some acronyms have become a common part of the english language so an example is asap for or asap force as soon as possible so ensure that medical abbreviations you use are consistent with those approved in your ems system because there are error-prone abbreviations so the joint commission and the institute for safe medication practices have each published a do not use list serious errors can occur when an abbreviation is not interpreted as intended hs on a prescription can mean either hours of sleep or half strength to avoid errors some agencies limit the use of abbreviations and do not allow their use so trailing zeros and naked decimals so trailing zeros is zero offer the decimal point so zero's after the decimal point sorry to avoid errors always include a zero before the decimal but leave it off after so write five milligrams not 5.0 milligrams and 0.5 milligrams not 0.5 okay so the next thing we're going to talk about is syllables and like abbreviation syllables are sometimes used as a shortcut in documentation and other communication so as with abbreviations though it's important to only use syllables that are widely understood and accepted syllables that can easily be confused are the greater and greater than or less than and it may be mistaken for the numbers seven or the letter l or each other so spell out the syllables that may be misinterpreted to protect patient safety the joint commission requires every hospital to issue a list of approved abbreviations and certain abbreviations are prohibited so each ems system should also list keep a list of approved medical abbreviations available for reporting and documentation purposes learn which abbreviations are acceptable in your service area and when in doubt write out the term in full and this table shows some common syllables so medical terminology related to pharmacology so a paramedic must be familiar with terminology related to medications and medication administration such as prefixes commonly used in medication administration metric conversions used in drug calculation and selected medical abbreviations associated with pharmacology so there's a master table um tables 7-15-7-8 provide reference lists of selected prefixes suffixes word roots and combining forms and other common abbreviations these tables show prefixes commonly used in medication administration and metric conversions used in drug calculations and this table shows selected medication or medical abbreviations associated with pharmacology okay so this concludes chapter 7 medical terminology lecture if you've enjoyed this go ahead and subscribe to the channel because we're going to be producing all the chapters very shortly thank you