Advance Directives Glossary of Medical Terms

These are medical definitions of medical terms from the MedTerms.com medical dictionary that appear in the Advance Directives article.

Abortion: In medicine, an abortion is the premature exit of the products of conception (the fetus, fetal membranes, and placenta) from the uterus. It is the loss of a pregnancy and does not refer to why that pregnancy was lost.
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Advance directives: These directives pertain to treatment preferences and the designation of a surrogate decision-maker in the event that a person should become unable to make medical decisions on their own behalf. Advance directives generally fall into three categories: living will, power of attorney and health care proxy.
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Assisted living: A type of long-term care facility for elderly or disabled people who are able to get around on their own but who may need help with some activities of daily living, or simply prefer the convenience of having their meals in a central cafeteria and having nursing staff on call.
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Breathing: The process of respiration, during which air is inhaled into the lungs through the mouth or nose due to muscle contraction, and then exhaled due to muscle relaxation.
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Cardiac: Having to do with the heart.
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Cardiopulmonary: Having to do with both the heart and lungs.
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Cardiopulmonary resuscitation: The emergency substitution of heart and lung action to restore life to someone who appears dead. The two main components of conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are chest compression to make the heart pump and mouth-to-mouth ventilation to breath for the victim. Hands-only CPR is a form of resuscitation that involves continuous, rapid chest compressions only, and although effective, it is not as beneficial as conventional CPR in a patient who is not breathing.
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Coma: A state of deep unarousable unconsciousness.
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CPR: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation . Also cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation and computer-based patient records.
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Cure: 1. To heal, to make well, to restore to good health. Cures are easy to claim and, all too often, difficult to confirm.
2. A time without recurrence of a disease so that the risk of recurrence is small, as in the 5-year cure rate for malignant melanoma .
3. Particularly in the past, a course of treatment. For example, take a cure at a spa.
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Dialysis: The process of cleansing the blood by passing it through a special machine. Dialysis is necessary when the kidneys are not able to filter the blood. Dialysis allows patients with kidney failure a chance to live productive lives. There are two types of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Each type of dialysis has advantages and disadvantages. Patients can often choose the type of long term dialysis that best matches their needs.
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Durable power of attorney: This is a type of advance medical directive in which legal documents provide the power of attorney to another person in the case of an incapacitating medical condition.
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Electroshock therapy: See Electroconvulsive therapy .
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Emergency department: The department of a hospital responsible for the provision of medical and surgical care to patients arriving at the hospital in need of immediate care. Emergency department personnel may also respond to certain situations within the hospital such cardiac arrests.
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Health care proxy: A health care proxy is one form of advance medical directive. Advance medical directives pertain to treatment preferences and the designation of a surrogate decision-maker in the event that a person should become unable to make medical decisions on their own behalf.
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Heart: The muscle that pumps blood received from veins into arteries throughout the body. It is positioned in the chest behind the sternum (breastbone; in front of the trachea, esophagus, and aorta; and above the diaphragm muscle that separates the chest and abdominal cavities. The normal heart is about the size of a closed fist, and weighs about 10.5 ounces. It is cone-shaped, with the point of the cone pointing down to the left. Two-thirds of the heart lies in the left side of the chest with the balance in the right chest.
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Hospice: A program or facility that provides special care for people who are near the end of life and for their families. Hospice care can be provided at home, in a hospice or another freestanding facility, or within a hospital . See also: Hospice care .
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Incurable: Not amenable to a cure . Incapable of being cured, healed and made well again. Many pancreatic cancers are incurable. From the word cure, from the Latin cura meaning care, concern or attention.
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Injury: Harm or hurt. The term "injury" may be applied in medicine to damage inflicted upon oneself as in a hamstring injury or by an external agent on as in a cold injury . The injury may be accidental or deliberate, as with a needlestick injury . The term "injury" may be synonymous (depending on the context) with a wound or with trauma .
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Kidney: One of a pair of organs located in the right and left side of the abdomen which clear "poisons" from the blood, regulate acid concentration and maintain water balance in the body by excreting urine. The kidneys are part of the urinary tract. The urine then passes through connecting tubes called "ureters" into the bladder. The bladder stores the urine until it is released during urination.

Life support: 1. A therapy or device designed to preserve someone's life when an essential bodily system is not doing so. Life support may, for example, involve enteric feeding (by a tube), total parenteral nutrition , mechanical ventilation , a pacemaker , defibrillator , heart/lung machine, or dialysis .
2. Something that sustains life, as in "The earth is the ultimate life support system."
3. A product, program or company being propped up, as in "Medicare is on life support."
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Life-support: Pertaining to life support , as in "He is only here because of the life-support systems.
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Living will: A living will is one form of advance medical directive. Advance medical directives pertain to treatment preferences and the designation of a surrogate decision-maker in the event that a person should become unable to make medical decisions on their own behalf.
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Long-term care facility: A facility that provides rehabilitative, restorative, and/or ongoing skilled nursing care to patients or residents in need of assistance with activities of daily living. Long-term care facilities include nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, inpatient behavioral health facilities, and long-term chronic care hospitals.
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Nursing: 1) Profession concerned with the provision of services essential to the maintenance and restoration of health by attending the needs of sick persons. 2) Feeding a infant at the breast .
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Nursing home: A residential facility for persons with chronic illness or disability, particularly older people who have mobility and eating problems. Also called a convalescent home, long-term care facility.
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Nutrition : 1) The science or practice of taking in and utilizing foods. 2) A nourishing substance, such as nutritional solutions delivered to hospitalized patients via an IV or IG tube.
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Organ: A relatively independent part of the body that carries out one or more special functions. The organs of the human body include the eye , ear , heart , lungs , and liver .
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Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia . Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.
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Pharmacy: A location where prescription drugs are sold. A pharmacy is, by law, constantly supervised by a licensed pharmacist.
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Respiratory: Having to do with respiration, the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. From the Latin re- (again) + spirare (to breathe) = to breathe again.
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Resuscitate: To restore to life. Derived from the Latin resuscitare, to reawaken.
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Resuscitation: The procedure of restoring to life, as in cardiopulmonary resuscitation ( CPR ).
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Sibling: A brother or sister.
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Therapy: The treatment of disease .
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Tubes: The "tubes" are medically known as the Fallopian tubes. There are two Fallopian tubes, one on each side, which transport the egg from the ovary to the uterus (the womb). The Fallopian tubes have small hair-like projections called cilia on the cells of the lining.
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Unconscious: 1. Interruption of awareness of oneself and one's surroundings, lack of the ability to notice or respond to stimuli in the environment. A person may become unconscious due to oxygen deprivation, shock, central nervous system depressants such as alcohol and drugs, or injury.
2. In psychology, that part of thought and emotion that happens outside everyday awareness.
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Ventilator: A ventilator is a machine which mechanically assists patients in the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide (sometimes referred to as artificial respiration).
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