Medical Device and Equipment Terms
Instruments, implants, machines, supplies, and equipment used in healthcare. Browse definitions and meanings below.
How are medical devices named?
Device names usually describe a route, a destination or a job. A nasogastric tube is named for the path it takes, from the nose to the stomach. An endotracheal tube sits inside the trachea. Once the pattern is visible, an unfamiliar device name often explains itself.
Several categories blur together in everyday speech. A catheter is any tube placed into the body to deliver or drain fluid, which makes it a far broader word than its common urinary sense. A stent holds a passage open. An implant is meant to stay, while most tubes and lines are temporary by design.
Terms in this topic
Alphabetical order-
A solid filament with nothing running through it, which is what separates it from every needle used to inject or withdraw.
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An electronic device that is implanted in the body to monitor heart rate and rhythm.
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A tool that helps a person with a disability to do a certain task.
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An autoclave sterilizes medical and laboratory equipment using pressurized steam at temperatures high enough to destroy microorganisms and their spores.
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A system used to deliver internal radiation therapy to breast cancer patients after surgery to remove their cancer.
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A silicone gel-filled or saline-filled sac placed under the chest muscle to restore breast shape.
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A bronchoscope is a thin, lighted instrument passed into the airway to directly view and sample tissue from the trachea and bronchi.
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A capsule endoscope is a swallowed, camera equipped pill that photographs the digestive tract as it travels through the body.
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An electronic device that is implanted in the body to monitor heart rate and rhythm.
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One word covers devices as different as a bladder drain and a line threaded into a large vein near the heart.
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A tube surgically placed into a blood vessel for the purpose of giving intravenous fluid and drugs.
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A device used to deliver drugs directly to the cervix (the lower, narrow end of the uterus that forms a canal between the uterus and vagina).
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A thin, tube-like instrument used to examine the inside of the colon.
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The instrument never touches the patient, which surprises people expecting something closer to an internal camera.
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Elastic worn to move fluid rather than to squeeze a limb thinner, with the pressure deliberately highest furthest from the heart.
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A machine used to keep blood and lymph flowing by pushing air through bands or sleeves that are placed on the arms or legs.
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Rigid or flexible: the choice of instrument decides whether the look inside happens in a clinic room or an operating room.
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Turns the usual picture inside out by throwing away the direct light, so unstained living organisms glow against black.
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It replaces the root rather than the visible tooth, and everything above the gum line simply attaches to what is anchored in bone.
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What separates a device from a drug is mechanism: it acts physically or mechanically rather than through chemical action inside the body.