Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «S»:
Surrogate mother: Also known as surrogate. A woman who agrees to become
pregnant and carry a child for another individual or couple, who will become the
child's legal parents. In some situations and locations a surrogate mother may
be paid for her services. In traditional surrogacy, the woman bec...
Surveillance and containment
Surveillance and containment: See: Ring vaccination....
Surveillance of disease
Surveillance of disease: See: Disease surveillance....
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Ends Results
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Ends Results: See: SEER....
Susceptibility genes, breast cancer
Susceptibility genes, breast cancer: Inherited factors that predispose to breast cancer. Put otherwise, these genes make one more susceptible to the
disease and so increase the risk of developing breast cancer.
Several breast cancer susceptibility genes such as
BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been identif...
Sutton law: See: Sutton's law....
Sutton's law: In medicine, the principle of going straight to the most likely diagnosis. The law is named for the bank robber Willy Sutton who was asked why he robbed banks and who replied "because that is where the money is" (or so the story goes)....
Suture: 1. A type of joint between the bones of the skull where the bones are held tightly together by fibrous tissue.
2. Thread-like material used to sew tissue together.
3. To stitch a wound closed.
The word suture came with little change from the Latin sutura, "a sewn seam." In Latin, the verb...
SV 40: See: SV40....
SV40: Simian virus 40, a polyomavirus found in simians (nonhuman primates), SV40 has no relationship to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or to the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
Some lots of polio vaccines in the 1960s were discovered to contain SV40. It was found in the inactivated (Sal...
Swallower: In the drug trade, an individual used as a drug courier. Also called a body packer. See: Body packer....
Swallowing syncope: The temporary loss of consciousness upon swallowing. Syncope is the temporary loss of consciousness or, in plain English, fainting. The situations that trigger this reaction are diverse and include having blood drawn, straining while urinating (micturition syncope) or defecating...
Swallowing tube: Descriptive term for the esophagus. See: Esophagus. ...
Swan-Ganz catheter: See: Catheter, Swan-Ganz....
Sweat: A colorless transparent acidic fluid with a distinctive odor secreted by the small tubular sudoriferous (sweat) glands situated within the skin and under it in the subcutaneous tissue. The sweat glands discharge their fluid through tiny openings in the surface of the skin.
Sweat contains fatt...