Medical Terminology For Dummies - Beverley Henderson For Dummies

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seminal vesicles, prostate, and bulbourethral glands (or Cowper’s glands). The supporting structures include the penis, scrotum, and spermatic cords.

      The female reproductive system produces the female reproductive cell, or sex cell, secretes the hormones estrogen and progesterone, and provides the conditions to establish a pregnancy, together with providing a safe place for the pregnancy to develop and grow. The gonads (ovaries in the female), together with the internal accessory organs consisting of the fallopian (uterine) tubes, uterus, vagina, external genitalia, and breasts (mammary glands) make up the reproductive system in the female. Reproduction is achieved by the union of the female reproductive cell, an ovum, and the male reproductive cell, a spermatozoon (sperm for short), resulting in fertilization.

      This is just a quick glance at the kinds of stuff you’re going to learn about your body. Of course, the appropriate terms are discussed in detail along with the simple biology background.

       The Ultimate Resource: You

      A listing of well-known term references, recall devices, and word-building activities will help you apply terminology to your own personal real-world situation.

      The references mentioned in this book are some of the most well respected. Of course, there are thousands of online and print resources, most of which are decent, if not downright reputable. Use your own good judgment when it comes to choosing one as your go-to source.

      As you go on this journey, remember that ultimately you are your own best source of tips and tricks. Maybe you’re a flash card aficionado. Perhaps you do best when you can visualize the term with the appropriate body system. Or maybe you like a good old pneumonic device like “i before e except after c.” No matter how you choose to learn and recall these terms, do what is most comfortable and useful for you. You’re the captain of this boat. Now, hoist the sail!

      Chapter 2

      Medical Terminology: The How and Why

       In This Chapter

      ▶ Getting an understanding of what medical terminology is

      ▶ Finding out how medical terms are used in the real world

      ▶ Tracking the evolution of terminology

      ▶ Exploring Greek and Latin roots

      Repeat after us: Context is a good thing. You love context. Mmmmm, context. It is a good idea to get to know something about your subject matter before you dive head-first into studying it. This is particularly true with medical terminology because so much of the theory and history behind this topic shows up in the actual words and terms you will use every day.

       Defining Medical Terminology

      First, let’s ponder what medical terminology is. It’s a whole lot more than just medical words and phrases. Each word and each term is organic, meaning you can trace each part of the word back to a specific meaning. Cobbled together, these parts make up the meaning of the word. Medical terminology is made up of terms that describe human anatomy and physiology (body organs, systems, and their functions), body locations, diseases, diagnostic imaging and laboratory testing, together with clinical procedures, surgeries, and diagnoses.

      

A medical term usually describes in one word a disease or condition that, under normal circumstances, would take several words to describe.

      Sprechen Sie terminology?

      Medical terminology is like a foreign language to most people. In fact, it operates exactly like a foreign language if you have never encountered it before. Just as with practicing German (or any language, for that matter), you get the meaning of medical terms by breaking down each word into different parts:

      ✔ Prefix: Appears at the beginning of a word and tells the how, why, where, when, how much, how many, position, direction, time, or status.

      ✔ Root word: Specifies the body part to which the term refers.

      ✔ Suffix: Appears at the end of a word and indicates a procedure, condition, or disease.

      Those are the bare bones, basic parts of every medical term. Each prefix, root, and suffix has its own meaning, so it’s your job to remember them and put the three meanings together into one greater word meaning. It can be tricky, though, so proceed carefully until you are confident of individual part meanings.

      As with languages, things aren’t always what they seem. For example, if we use tonsillitis and appendectomy, we see that the suffix -itis always means ”inflammation,” no matter what root word precedes it. Similarly, the suffix -ectomy always means “surgical removal of.” So when switching suffixes, appendicitis means “inflammation of the appendix,” and tonsillectomy means “surgical removal of the tonsils.”

      For example, consider two terms commonly known to most people. Tonsillitis is a one-word medical term to describe “inflammation of the tonsils,” and appendectomy is a one-word medical term to describe “surgical removal of the appendix.” It’s much easier to use one word than a long, drawn-out phrase to describe these conditions, don’t you think?

       Medical Terminology in the Real World

      The need or desire to learn medical terminology is not limited to the healthcare professionals. For example, a firefighter has to relay information to paramedics, such as the condition of a burn victim being placed in an ambulance. A police officer must complete a written report after delivering a baby in the back seat of a car. Or closer to home, think about trying to understand when a doctor tells you that your child needs surgery, or why an aging parent needs to be placed in a long-term care facility. Medical terminology allows you to convey the greatest quantity of information, with the least confusion and most precision, to anyone in the world. For example, saying someone has a badly broken wrist doesn’t convey as much as saying someone has a Salter-Harris II fracture of the right distal radius with moderate lateral displacement and 28 degrees of anterior angulation. Now who’s the coolest kid in the clinic?

       In theory and practice

      You don’t need prior knowledge of Greek and Latin or anatomy and physiology to build a medical vocabulary. But you do need to master the fundamentals, or the ABCs, so to speak, to be comfortable and confident with medical terminology.

      

You accomplish this by breaking down each word and identifying its parts (prefix, suffix, and root). A basic knowledge of the human anatomy helps, but more important is to know how each body system works independently and together with other systems. Knowing that helps the puzzle pieces fit into place more easily.

      Mastering medical terms is much easier than you think. It is certainly easier than acquiring a whole new language from scratch. New terms become easier once you know the reasoning behind most medical terms. Many terms are made up of interchangeable parts, used over and over again, in different combinations. Once you understand this, you will be well on your way to translating even the toughest medical terms – including terms you have never heard or seen before.

       Writing it down

      One thing that gives some people pause with medical terminology is spelling the words correctly. Again, defer to the rule of breaking down the word into parts. If you can spell each small prefix, root, or suffix and put them all together, then you can spell medical terms with ease.

      

One of the best ways to practice the spelling is, of course, to write it down.

      Whether you are a list maker or prefer to draw maps, there is a way for you to incorporate writing terms as spelling and word-recognition practice. Some useful ideas for writing and recalling terms are

      ✔ Make lists of similar prefixes, roots, and suffixes based on what body system they are associated with.

      ✔

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