Emergency & Critical Care terms
Medical emergencies, trauma, resuscitation, intensive care, and life-threatening illness. Browse definitions and meanings below.
Terms in this topic
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Anaphylactic shock is a severe, rapidly developing allergic reaction that can cause airway swelling, a sharp blood pressure drop, and circulatory collapse.
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Comfort care focuses on relieving symptoms and improving quality of life, most often used to describe care provided near the end of life.
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A way to provide an investigational therapy to a patient who is not eligible to receive that therapy in a clinical trial, but who has a serious or life-threatening illness for which other treatments…
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A type of advance directive in which a person states that healthcare providers should not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (restarting the heart) if his or her heart or breathing stops.
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A type of advance directive in which a person states that healthcare providers should not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (restarting the heart) if his or her heart or breathing stops.
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A way to provide an investigational therapy to a patient who is not eligible to receive that therapy in a clinical trial, but who has a serious or life-threatening illness for which other treatments…
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Molecular chaperones named after the heat experiment that revealed them, though they work constantly and not only in a crisis.
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Lhermitte's sign is an electric shock like sensation down the spine triggered by bending the neck forward, pointing to spinal cord irritation.
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A life-threatening condition that may be caused by certain drugs used to treat mental illness, nausea, or vomiting.
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Palliation is care focused on relieving symptoms and improving comfort in serious illness, distinct from treatment aimed at curing the underlying disease.
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The commonest misconception is that it signals giving up, when it can begin on the day of diagnosis.
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Treatment given to relieve the symptoms and reduce the suffering caused by cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
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An anxiety disorder that develops in reaction to physical injury or severe mental or emotional distress, such as military combat, violent assault, natural disaster, or other life-threatening events.