Guest Kirsteen Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 Hi there, I asked this question of my boss a few weeks ago and he didn't have any background or explanation to share, but what's the story behind the use of the contractions ending in "x", e.g., Rx, Tx, Sx? Is there a method as to how these wee noogies are formed, and generally, what does the "x" stand for? Also, how many of these x-ions are there out there? Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 I don't know the actual story, but there's so many short forms in medicine it's hard to keep them straight. . . especially since some are redundant between services and/or used differently by different docs (I've seen Sx used for either surgery or symptoms.) Best guess to the reason is why is that doctors spend a ridiculous amount of their time documenting, and as such try to take as little time to do so as possible. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted December 21, 2003 Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 I think it's just shorthand, just like when you get a prescription from your doctor, and try to figure it out on your own. Sx: Either Surgery or Symptoms (figure out by context) Bx: Biopsy Dx: Diagnosis Px: Prognosis Tx: Treatment Rx: Prescription Fx: Fracture (although # is more commonly used to denote a fracture) Hx: History H&P: History and Physical Here's a bunch of abbreviations that every medical student ends up learning by rote, simply because they are the standard headings during a hospital admission history (ie. the stuff every patient should have when they first enter into the hospital, so that everyone else can just look at the chart for documentation). ID: Identification CC: Chief Complaint HPI: History of Present Illness PMHx: Past Medical History PSHx: Past Surgical History (often rolled into the PMHx) FHx: Family History SocHx: Social History Meds: Current Medications All: Allergies, especially any drug-related allergies ROS: Review of systems (general questions on each body system) O/E: On (physical) Exam H&N: Head and Neck Resp: Respiratory system CVS: Cardiovascular system Abd: Abdomen GU: Genitourinary system Neuro: Neurological system MSK: Musculoskeletal system A/P: Assessment and Plan Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest seonagh Posted December 21, 2003 Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 This is probably more detail than you wanted but.... [beside the Rx] Other abbreviations with "x"s are used by medical people too; sx = signs and symptoms, tx = treatment or transplant, hx = history, and dx = diagnosis. But Rx isn't just a normal R and x. It's a symbol (not available in the ASCII list) of an italic R with a leg that hangs down below the line with an X line through it. This brings me to theory number two, from the book Devils, Drugs, and Doctors, written in 1931: "Rx is not, as is frequently supposed, an abbreviation of a Latin word meaning recipe or compound, but is an invocation to Jupiter, a prayer for his aid to make the treatment effective...sometimes in old medical manuscripts all the R's occurring in the text were crossed." In other words, the Rx symbol was a corruption of the ancient symbol for the Roman god Jupiter. If you're an astrology fan, you know this symbol which has a very similar crossed leg at the bottom right. Nonsense, says Phil Griego, owner of a local pharmacy called "Phil's Pills." He should know. I called him because he has the Rx symbol incorporated into his store logo. He says the R probably came from "recipe" but the pharmaceutical symbol used to be an EYE with an "x" below it instead of the "R," and was called the "Eye of Horus." According to Phil, the Egyptian god Horus was the "father of pharmacy." As soon as he said it, I remembered seeing a farmacia in Juarez, Mexico with the eyeball/x picture in its logo. The Medieval Latin word "pharmacia," a medicine, comes from the Greek word "pharmakeia," use of drugs, from "pharmakon," drug or remedy. The real history of pharmacy begins with the Chinese (the great Chinese herbal compilation "Ben cao" was attributed to the emperor Shennong in 2700 BC) and the Egyptians. The Ebers papyrus, circa 1550 BC, listed 700 drugs and 800 compounds, and is thought to be a copy of the even more ancient books of Thoth (3000 BC). One source I saw suggested that that there is a connection between the word "pharmacy" and the Egyptian term ph-ar-maki ("bestower of security"), "which the God Thoth, patron of physicians, conferred as approbation on a ferryman who had managed a safe crossing." Whoa. Hey Jupiter, scoot over for Horus. source:www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrx.html Seonagh 8o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted December 21, 2003 Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 Brilliant. Thanks for all that information, folks. Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jeff Posted December 22, 2003 Report Share Posted December 22, 2003 you forgot... LOL: little old lady FLK: funny looking kid 4F: fat, fair, female, forty (for abdominal pain patient typical of gallbladder disease) ADR: ain't doin right AGMI: ain't gonna make it Celestial discharge: recently deceased. anyways, there are more than i care to l ist right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorae Posted December 22, 2003 Report Share Posted December 22, 2003 3 ways a person arrives at the ER: DOA: dead on arrival BOD: better off dead SIO: sleeping it off :lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mydream88 Posted December 24, 2003 Report Share Posted December 24, 2003 F/U follow up D/C discharged? I have seen this symbol in reference to removal of a chest tube for example I beleive that the language of medicine has evolved to a dialect within it's own right! mydream88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted December 24, 2003 Report Share Posted December 24, 2003 D/C is context-based, and can mean either Discharge or Discontinue. ie: D/C Home means to discharge a patient home. D/C IV or D/C Foley means to discontine/remove a patient's IV or Foley catheter. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted December 24, 2003 Report Share Posted December 24, 2003 The original was Rc in reference to treatment plans; can't remember the Latin but I'll look it up. Interestingly, a graphical error switched it to Rx about 200 years ago, but Rx was a shorthand for a medical mistake... A few others that have been used and probably shouldn't be: CTD: circling the drain (not doing so well) CFCP: cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs (acutely psychotic) CRCR: crispy critter (burn victim) uDk: microdeckia (not playing with a full deck) IHHP: in the hands of a higher power (not doing well, usually in the ICU) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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