Glossary
Health glossary
68 definitions · page 2 of 2.
- augmentative devices
- tools that help individuals with limited or absent speech to communicate.
- aural rehabilitation
- techniques used with people who are hearing impaired to improve their ability to speak and to communicate.
- autoimmune process
- a process where the body's immune system attacks and destroys body tissue that it mistakes for foreign matter.
- autologous transplant
- a procedure in which a patient's own bone marrow is removed, treated with anticancer drugs or radiation, then returned to the patient.
- autopsy
- examination of a body after death; performed to determine cause of death, or to verify a diagnosis.
- avulsion
- when a muscle is forcefully stretched beyond its freely available range of motion, or when it meets a sudden, unexpected resistance while contracting forcefully.
- axillary dissection
- a surgical procedure in which the lymph nodes in the armpit (axillary nodes) are removed and examined; often used to determine if breast cancer has spread to the axillary nodes.
- axon
- the long, hair like extension of a nerve cell that carries a message to a nearby nerve cell.