hi and welcome back my name is sean holt i'm with rc health services today we're going to be going over chapter 5 which is medical terminology so as an emt you must have a strong working knowledge of medical terminology for effective communication and documentation you must understand key terms symbols and abbreviations you can determine the meaning of an unknown word by understanding how terms are formed learning the definitions for parts of a medical term the understanding medical jargon will help you communicate effectively with other members of ems healthcare and public safety teams the anatomy of a medical term so medical terms are made of distinct parts that perform specific functions changing or deleting any of those parts can significantly change the function or the meaning of a word components that would comprise medical terms include the word root the foundation of the word the prefix what occurs before the word root the suffix which occurs after the word root and combining vowels vowels that join one or more word roots to other components of a term how the parts of the term are combined determines its meaning so accurate spelling is an essential part of medical terminology the suffix facia with an s means speaking whereas phasia with a g means eating or swallowing and then the prefix disc dys means difficult or painful so dysphagia with an s means difficulty speaking while dysphagia with the g means difficulty eating or swallowing so accurate spelling is essential in medical terminology how the parts of the term are combined determined is its meaning so understand the knowledge of anatomy understand and have knowledge of anatomy and understand the context of how words are used so word roots the main part or stem of a word is called a word root or root word and it conveys the essential meaning of the word and frequently indicates a body part both terms have at least one root word and some have more than one root adding a prefix or suffix to the word root creates a term changing this prefix or suffix will change the meaning of the term some word roots may also be used as prefixes or suffixes for other terms so cardiopulmonary breaks down into cardio which is a word meaning heart and pulmon which is a word meaning lungs a prefix is a part of a term that appears at the beginning of a word prefixes usually describe location and intensity or intensity a prefix gives the word root it's its specific meaning [Music] by learning the commonly used medical prefixes you can con you can figure out the meaning of the terms that may not be familiar to you suffixes are placed at the end of words suffixes usually indicate a procedure a condition a disease or a part of speech combining vowels a combining vowel is a the part of a term that connects a word root to a suffix or other word root in most cases it is an o however it may also be an i or an e used when joining a suffix that begins with a consonant or when joining another word root the combining vowel helps use the pronunciation of the term a combining form is a combining vowel shown with the word root so word building rules the following summarizes the rules covered thus far the prefix is always at the beginning of a term however not all terms will have a prefix the suffix is always at the end of a term and use a combining vowel when one the the a suffix begins with a consonant to make pronunciation easier or two a term that has more than one word root a combining vowel must be placed between the two words uh two word roots even if the second root begins with a vowel so plural endings uh to change a term from singular to plural form of certain rules apply sometimes you can add an s slung becomes lungs to make it plural but some rules are more complicated rules you may encounter when converting from singular to plural terms are one singular words that end in a change to a e when plural such as vertebra to vertebrae and then two singular words that end in is changed to es when plural from diagnosis to diagnosees seeing the words that end in ex or ix change to i-c-e-s so apex to apex apices and then uh singular words that end in o in or um are changed to an a so ganglion or ganglia i'm sorry to gang to ganglia and then o vum to ova and then singular words that end in us are changed to eyes such as bronchus to bronchi so special word parts prefixes can be used to indicate numbers colors or positions and directions numbers so several prefixes are used to indicate if a term involves a number such as half one or two or more parts or sides examples uni dip null preemie multi and bi and several word roots are used to describe color examples cyan or cyano uh like cyanosis uh leuko or luke for leukemia or uh leukotrienes right erythro or a riff with an r at the end like erythrocyte and then cero like cirrhosis and then melano i'm sorry melon to melano all right positions and directions prefixes can also be used to describe a position direction or location examples would be a b a d d e circum peri trans epi or supra position directions or locations directional terms so it may need be needed to discuss where an injury is located and how pain radiates through the body some directional terms include right and left superior and inferior lateral and medial proximal and distal and superficial and deep ventral and dorsal palmer and plantar and apex the terms right and left refer to the patient's right and left sides not to your right and your left side superior and inferior the superior part of any body part is the proportion nearer to the head from a specific reference point the part near to the feet is the inferior portion these terms are also used to describe the relationship of one structure to another for an example the knee is superior to the foot and inferior to the pelvis lateral and medial parts of the body that lie farther from the midline are called lateral or outer structures the parts that lie closer to the midline are called medial which are the inner structures proximal and distal describe the relationship of two extremities uh two structures on an extremity a proximal describes structures that are closer to the trunk and distal describes structures that are farther from the trunk or nearer to the free end of the extremity superficial and deep superficial means closer to or on the skin and deep means farther inside the body or tissue and away from the skin ventral and dorsal ventral reverse to the belly side of the body or the anterior surface of the body dorsal refers to the spinal side of the body or the posterior surface of the body think of the dorsal fin of a dolphin which is on its back the more commonly used terms are anterior the front surface of the body and posterior the back surface of the body palmer and plantar the front region of the hand is referred to as the palm or palmer surface the bottom of the foot is referred to as the plantar surface apex such as the pleural apices is the tip of a structure movement terms the following terms relate to movement for flexion it is the bending of a joint extension is the straightening of a joint adduction is motion toward the midline an abduction with a b is motion away from the midline other directional terms so a body part that appears on both sides of the midline is bilateral structures inside the body also appear on both sides of the midline something that appears on only one side of the body is said to occur unilaterally use terms properly so that other medical personnel who care for the patient will know immediately where to look and what to expect anatomic positions there are many terms used to describe the position of the patient on your arrival or during transport to the emergency department the body is in the prone position when lying face down and the body is in the supine position when lying face up the fowler position is a semi-reclining position with the head elevated to keep the to help the patient breathe easier and to control the airway a patient who is sitting upright is said to be in the fowler position semi fowler position patient sits with the back of the stretcher at a 45 degree angle in a high fowler position means that the patient sits at a 90 degree angle so breaking terms apart you can use knowledge of the meaning of parts of words to decipher the meaning of a term when decide when trying to define a term begin with the suffix and work backwards if the term also contains a prefix to find the suffix then the prefix and then the word root here are some examples nephropathy okay nephra and then pathy at the end right uh that pathy at the end is the suffix meaning disease the o is the combining form and nefer is the word root meaning kidney so nephro and nephropathy is a disease of the kidney dysuria alright so dys meaning difficult painful or abnormal ia at the end meaning a condition of and then you are is the word root meaning urine uh the word root meaning urine so you are is what tells us that is related to urine so dysuria means painful urination or pain when urinating and also pain difficulty urinating hyperemesis okay hyper would be the prefix meaning excessive and emesis would be the word root meaning vomiting so hyperemesis would mean excessive vomiting analgesic so the ic is the suffix meaning pertaining to the a in is a prefix meaning without or absence of and algs is the word root meaning pain all right so all together analgesic pertains to no pain abbreviations acronyms and symbols abbreviate medical abbreviations acronyms and symbols are a type of shorthand used for communication developed because one could communicate faster using this method use only commonly understood abbreviations to minimize misinter interpretations and errors the joint commission and the institute for safe medication practices are considered two authorities on abbreviations and provide do not use lists abbreviations remember to use only standard accepted abbreviations to avoid confusion and errors when you use an acronym you are used shortening several words usually using the first letter of each word to make a shorter term that is pronounced as its own be familiar with accepted use of abbreviations in your local jurisdiction or service area symbols as with abbreviations it is important to only use symbols that are widely understood and accepted so which of the following components of a medical term conveys its essential meaning the answer is c word root the word root conveys the essential meaning of a medical term number two prefixes can indicate what prefixes can indicate color the answer is a prefixes are used to indicate colors numbers position or direction suffixes will indicate a procedure conditioned disease or part of speech word roots will indicate specific body parts number three the plural form of the word bronchus is what the answer is d bronchi when the word ends in u.s the plural form will end an eye number four the statement the lungs are superior to the bladder indicates the lungs are closer to the what the answer is c head the term superior is used to indicate a structure closer to the head than another structure number five movement of the arm toward midline is referred to as what all right and the answer is c adduction a deduction the term adduction is used to describe movement of a structure towards the midline abduction with a b is used to describe movement of a structure away from the midline of the body number six a body part that lies closer to the midline when compared to another is considered to be what the correct answer is a medial the term medial is used to identify a body part that is closer to the midline when compared to another number seven this is used to identify a body part that is on the belly side or anterior surface of the body the answer is d ventral ventral is used to identify uh identify a body part that is located on the belly side or anterior surface of the body uh dorsal describes the structure on the back or posterior side of the body number eight you place a patient in the semi-fowler position for transport this means the patient is what and the answer is c sitting at a 45 degree angle a patient said it's said to be supine when laid on their back prone when laying on their stomach and if you have a patient sitting at 90 degrees they are in a high fowler position and we are we are in semi foulers at 45 degrees number nine a laceration located on the plantar surface is on the what if you said a soul of the foot you would be correct planter refers to the souls of the feet while palmer refers to the refers to the palms of the hands and number 10 when using abbreviations acronyms are symbols an emt should what correct answer is d all of the above so be familiar with those used in your agency use only those that are medically accepted use them to shorten documentation all included alright that's what i have for you today thank you very much for joining me again my name is sean holt with rc health services have a good day