Medical Terms

Often times you will hear the doctors or the office staff refer to certain medical terms that you may be unfamiliar with.  Below is an explanation of some of them:

Ambulate:  to walk.

Anastomosis:  sewing or stapling two pieces of bowel or gastric tissue together, such as the stomach pouch and the small bowel in gastric bypass surgery.

Adipose Tissue:  Fatty tissue.  Is primarily located beneath the skin, but is also found around internal organs. In the skin, it accumulates in the deepest level, the subcutaneous layer, providing insulation from heat and cold. Around organs, it provides protective padding.

Body Mass Index  (BMI):  a key index for relating body weight to height. Technically, the BMI is a person's weight in kilograms (kg) divided by their height in meters (m) squared.

Dumping: Rapid gastric emptying, or dumping syndrome, happens when the lower end of the small intestine (jejunum) fills too quickly with undigested food from the stomach. "Early" dumping begins during or right after a meal. Symptoms of early dumping include nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea, and shortness of breath. "Late" dumping happens 1 to 3 hours after eating. Symptoms of late dumping include weakness, sweating, and dizziness. Many people have both types.

Duodenal:  related to the duodenum, which is the first part of the small intestine.

 

Embolism:  occurs when foreign material, such as a broken-off piece of plaque, a blood clot, fat or air, travels through the bloodstream and becomes lodged in a blood vessel blocking the flow of blood. Embolisms can occur in veins, which carry unoxygenated blood back to the heart and lungs, as well as arteries, which carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the tissues of the body. Depending on the size of the embolism and which blood vessel it is obstructing, the result can range from a complete lack of symptoms to a life-threatening emergency.

Fistula: an abnormal passageway in the body. A fistula may go from the body surface into a blind pouch or into an internal organ or between two internal organs.

Gastric:  having to do with the stomach.

Gastric Banding:  a surgical procedure used to help a person lose weight. A band is placed around the upper part of the stomach, creating a small pouch  that can hold only a small amount of food. The narrowed opening between the stomach pouch and the rest of the stomach controls how quickly food passes from the pouch to the lower part of the stomach. The system helps the patient eat less by limiting the amount of food that can be eaten at one time and increasing the time it takes for food to be digested. 

Gastric Bypass:  a surgical procedure that reduces stomach capacity and diverts partially digested food from the duodenum to the jejunum (section of the small intestine extending from the duodenum).

Gastroplasty: a surgical procedure that decreases the size of the stomach.

Jejunum: a portion of the small intestine that extends from the duodenum to the ileum.

Obesity:  the state of being well above one's normal weight because of an excessive accumulation of fat.

Panniculus: In a severely obese person, excess adipose tissue hanging downward from the abdomen is referred to as a panniculus (or pannus). A panniculus complicates surgery of the morbidly obese, and may remain as a literal "apron of skin" if a severely obese person loses most of the excess weight (as after a bypass).

Pulmonary:  relating to, or associated with the lungs.

Pulmonary Embolism:  embolism of a pulmonary artery or one of its branches that is produced by foreign matter and most often a blood clot originating in a vein of the leg or pelvis and that is marked by labored breathing, chest pain, fainting, rapid heart rate, cyanosis, shock, and sometimes death.

Sleep Apnea:  temporary stoppage of breathing during sleep, often resulting in daytime sleepiness.

Stoma:  an artificial opening to or from the intestine (which is also known as the gut or bowel). In gastric bypass surgery it is where the stomach and the jejunum are connected.

Stomal Stenosis:  After gastric bypass surgery, the opening between the gastric pouch and the jejunum (small intestine) can narrow, obstructing the passage of digesting food.