1 4 0
O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | F e b r u a r y 2015
Patients Say the Darndest Things
Knee cartridge, torn labrium, rotary cup and other mad malaprops.
W
e all make mistakes, and I for one mispro-
nounce or misuse several words daily. Yet I
still find it amusing when patients confuse
medical words and terminology.
• Cartilage. I love when patients ask me if I'm going to take out the
cartridg e
in their knee. I reply that I'll trim their cartilage or menis-
cus and only remove the cartridge if it's empty (kidding).
• Labrum. Often a patient will complain of a torn
lab rium
of their
hip or shoulder
.
I gently remind them of the proper term, labrum, and
reaffirm that I am an orthopedic surgeon, not a gynecologist!
• Rotator cuff. For some mysterious reason, patients often use
rota ry cup
to describe their shoulder affliction. Rotary cup sounds
more like a jet engine part than an important element of shoulder
anatomy.
• Fractured … not broken. Many patients consider a
fracture
to be a
discretely different and a much more cataclysmic event than a
b ro-
k en b one
. For many it is indeed bad enough that something is bro-
ken, but God forbid, if it is fractured the damage incurred is of a far
greater magnitude. Go figure.
• Lyme disease. Patients often refer to this infectious process
as
Lime's disea se.
Last I checked, this tick-borne illness
was named after Lyme, Conn., where it was discovered.
It was not named after a Doctor Lime! Maybe patients
think you contract the disease by eating spoiled limes?
• The nerve block. I can't tell you how many times a week a
patient will refer to their regional anesthetic as a
nerve
b lock er
. "Dr. Kelly, I felt great until the nerve blocker wore off" is
C U T T I N G R E M A R K S
John D. Kelly IV, MD
Knee
cartridge
surgery
Torn
labrium
