Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «O»:
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: A personality disorder characterized by a pervasive preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and interpersonal control, beginning by early adulthood at latest.
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) may be evident by:
preoccupation with ...
Obstetrical forceps: An instrument with two blades and a handle designed to aid in the vaginal delivery of a baby. Forceps may be used to ease a delivery or because of problems with fetal distress or fetal position. The decision to use forceps or do a C-section must be made by an obstetrician....
Obstetrician: A physician who delivers
babies and is in the
practice of obstetrics, the art and science of managing pregnancy,
labor and the puerperium, the time immediately after delivery.
Obstetrician/gynecologist: An obstetrician is a
physician who delivers babies and is in the practice of
obstetrics while a gynecologist is a physician who
specializes in treating diseases of the female reproductive
organs. The word "gynecology" comes from the Greek "gyno,
gynaikos" meaning woma...
Obstetrics: The art and science of managing pregnancy, labor and
the puerperium (the time after delivery)....
Obstruction: Blockage of a passageway. See, for example: Airway obstruction; Intestinal obstruction....
Obstruction, airway: See: Airway obstruction....
Obstruction, intestinal: See: Intestinal
Obstructive sleep apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. It owes its name to a Greek word, apnea, meaning "want of breath."
There are two types of sleep apnea: central and obstructive.
Central sleep apnea occurs when the br...
Obtund: To dull or blunt. From the Latin obtundere, to blunt....
Obtunded: Mentally dulled. A person may be obtunded due to head trauma. To obtund is to dull or blunt. From the Latin obtundere, to blunt....
Obverse: The opposite, the opposite side, the counterpart.
For example, mania is thought of as the obverse of depression just as heads is the obverse of tails on a coin....
Occam's razor: The principle of scientific or, in medicine, diagnostic parsimony or "unitarianism." In medicine, a clinician would like to be able to use Occam's razor and come up with a unifying diagnosis that will explain all of the patient's problems. "Although we generally like to invoke Occam's...
Occipital: 1. Pertaining to the occiput, the back of head.
2. Located near the occipital bone as, for example, the occipital lobe of the brain....
Occipital bone: The bone that forms the rear and the rear bottom of the skull. The occipital bone encloses a large oval hole called the foramen magnum that allows passage of the spinal cord. The occipital bone articulates (joins) with the parietal and temporal bones of the skull, the sphenoid bone i...