Jargon
- Many words have found their way into medical
- vocabularies with unusual meanings that are not
- recognized even by medical dictionaries. Such
- writings may be characterized as medical jargon
- or medical slang. When these words appear in
- medical manuscripts or in medical conversation,
- they are unintelligible to other scientists, particularly
- those of foreign countries; they are not translatable
- and are the mark of the careless and uncultured
- person.
- Morris Fishbein, MD17
- I have laboured to refine our language to gram-
- matical purity, and to clear it from colloquial
- barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular
- combinations.
- Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
Words and phrases that can be understood in conversation but are vague, confusing, or depersonalizing are generally inappropriate in formal scientific writing (see also 7.5, Grammar, Diction; 11.1, Correct and Preferred Usage of Common Words and Phrases; and 20.9, Study Design and Statistics, Glossary of Statistical Terms).
Jargon |
Preferred Form |
|---|---|
4+ albuminuria |
proteinuria (4+) |
blood sugar |
blood glucose |
cardiac diet |
diet for a patient with cardiac disease |
chart |
medical record |
chief complaint |
chief concern |
congenital heart |
congenital heart disease; congenital cardiac anomaly |
emergency room |
emergency department |
exam |
examination |
gastrointestinal infection |
gastrointestinal tract infection or infection of the gastrointestinal tract |
genitourinary infection |
genitourinary tract infection or infection of the genitourinary tract |
heart attack |
myocardial infarction |
hyperglycemia of 250 mg/dL |
hyperglycemia (blood glucose level of 250 mg/dL) |
jugular ligation |
jugular vein ligation or ligation of the jugular vein |
lab |
laboratory |
labs |
laboratory test results |
left heart failure |
left ventricular failure [preferred, but query author]; left-sided heart failure |
normal range |
reference range |
Pap smear |
Papanicolaou test |
the patient failed treatment |
treatment failed |
preemie |
premature infant |
prepped |
prepared |
psychiatric floor |
psychiatric department, service, unit, ward |
respiratory infection |
respiratory tract infection or infection of the respiratory tract |
status post |
after; following |
surgeries |
operations or surgical procedures |
symptomatology |
symptoms [query author] |
therapy of [a disease or condition] |
therapy for |
treatment for [a disease or condition] |
treatment of |
urinary infection |
urinary tract infection or infection of the urinary tract |
The following terms and euphemisms should be changed to preferred forms:
Avoid |
Use |
|---|---|
expired, passed away, succumbed |
died |
sacrificed |
killed; humanely killed [query author] |
Avoid trivializing or dehumanizing disciplines or specialties. For example:
Osteopathic physician and osteopathic medicine, not osteopath and osteopathy
Cardiologic consultant or cardiology consultation, not cardiology [for the person]
Orthopedic surgeon, not orthopod
Colloquialisms, idioms, and vulgarisms should be avoided in formal scientific writing. Exceptions may be made in editorials, informal articles, and the like.
When the administration of drugs is described, intra-articular, intracardiac, intramuscular, intrathecal, intravenous, intraventricular, intravitreal, oral, parenteral, rectal, subconjunctival, subcutaneous, sublingual, topical, and transdermal are acceptable terms when these are the usual or intended routes of administration. Except for systemic chemotherapy, however, drugs are usually neither systemic nor local but are given for systemic or local effect.
Some topical corticosteroid ointments produce systemic effects.
Oral penicillin is often preferred to parenteral penicillin.
Intravenously injected heroin may be contaminated.
Exceptions: Local anesthetics are a class of drug. Techniques for delivering anesthesia are general, local, and regional. Certain drugs may be inhaled.