Medical Terminology Crash Course

Every medical coder realizes the importance of knowing Greek and Latin roots to understand the medical prefixes and suffixes that make up many medical terms.

But in addition to those roots, there are several words that will prove important to your coding efforts. Once you have these mastered, you’ll have a clearer picture of exactly what your physician is doing, and you’ll be able to code it correctly.

These words include:

• Anterior or ventral -- At or near the front surface of the body.

• Avulsion -- Tearing away or forcible separation.

• Benign -- With regard to neoplasms, being nonmalignant.

• Carcinoma in situ -- A localized cancer that has not spread to adjacent structures.

• Coronal -- Vertical body plane, which divides the body into front and back sections.

• Cystocele -- Hernia of the bladder into the vagina.

• Cytopathology -- Study of disease changes within individual cells or cell types.

• Debridement -- Excision of devitalized tissue and foreign matter to expose healthy tissue.

• Destruction -- Removal or ablation of tissue.

• Distal -- Farthest away from the center.

• Endoscopy -- Examining the interior of a canal or hollow area in the body by using a special instrument.

• Exploration -- An active diagnostic examination, usually involving a surgical procedure, to determine conditions present within a body cavity.

• Inferior -- Below.

• Introduction -- Inserting an instrument, such as a needle or tube, into the body.

• Laparotomy -- A procedure performed through an incision (open procedure).

• Lateral -- Side.

• Ligation -- To bind or tie off.

• Malignant -- With regard to neoplasms, being locally invasive and destructive growth and metastases.

• Medial -- Middle.

• Metastases -- Spread of a disease process from one part of the body to another, such as secondary carcinoma resulting from tumor cells spread to a remote part of the body through the lymph or blood systems.

• Otitis media -- Middle ear infection.

• Posterior or dorsal -- At or near the back surface of the body.

• Primary carcinoma -- Cancer at the origination site with infiltration of that organ.

• Prone -- Face down or palm down.

• Proximal -- Nearest to the center.

• Rectocele -- Hernia of the rectum into the vagina.

• Sagittal -- Vertical body plane, which divides the body into equal right and left sides.

• Secondary carcinoma -- Cancer that appears in a region remote from the origination site through metastases.

• Superior -- Above.

• Supine -- Face up or palm up.

• Transverse -- Horizontal body plane, which divides the body into top and bottom sections.