Glossary Term - S
Alphabetical glossary of health & disability services, health terms and general MidCentral District Health Board information.
Saline
A mixture of water and salt, which is used to replace body fluids.
Scapula
The medical name for your shoulder blade.
Sclerotherapy
A method of shrivelling up blood vessels by injecting a medicine.
Scopy
A test that let the doctor look at part of your body. There are lots of different types of test, like a gastroscopy which involves your stomach and a cystoscopy which involves your bladder.
Sedation
A way of making you very sleepy, usually before and during a test or procedure.
Security
Seizure
Seizures can seem very frightening, both for your and your friends and family. They make some people shake a lot and others stay very still. Your brain is a lot like a computer - it has lots of electricity flowing through it. Sometimes there's too much power and everything short-circuits - that's what happens when you have a seizure.
Sepsis
Infection of a wound by bacteria, which leads to pus forming.
Sexual Health Centre
Shannon Health Services
Shock
When you’re in shock, the amount of blood flowing around your body drops suddenly which can make you unconscious. It usually happens after severe illness or injury.
Shunt
A passage created to drain liquid from one part of the body to another. Shunts are used to treat a condition called hydrocephalus where there is too much fluid around the brain.
Small bowel
This is part of your intestines and is about six metres long! It's all coiled up inside your abdomen. The small bowel's job is to remove the goodness from your food so that it can be absorbed by your body.
Social Work Department
Spasm
This is when one of your muscles contracts (squeezes) suddenly. Some types of spasms include hiccups and cramps.
Speech Therapy
Sphincter
A ring of muscle at the entrance or exit of an organ. There’s a sphincter at the top of your stomach, which stops what you’ve eaten flowing back up your foodpipe.
Spinal cord
This is part of your central nervous system. Your spinal cord is about 45cm long and about as thick as your finger. Messages to and from your brain travel down the cord before being passed on to other parts of your body.
Spleen
Your spleen is where red blood cells that are worn out and destroyed. It’s also part of your immune system.
Sputum
Mucus that is coughed up from your windpipe. It’s also called phlegm. If your sputum is yellow or green this could mean you have an infection.
Staff Bureau
Staff Development
Star Centre, Ward 1
Star Centre, Ward 2
Star Centre, Ward 3
Statement of Intent
Stomach
This is a bag of muscle under your ribcage, where food and drink is digested. It's full of really strong acid that turns your food and drink into a mushy liquid so that the goodness in it can be taken out.
Strategic Planning
Stress
Physical and mental reaction to events which we experience as beyond our coping abilities.
Sub-Acute Mental Health Services
Subcutaneous
A type of injection that is given under the skin.
Supportlinks
Suppository
Some medicines can’t be swallowed and need to be absorbed into the body another way. Suppositories are put up your bottom where they dissolve and are absorbed through the blood vessels in your rectum.
Suture
Another word for stitch. After an operation, the surgeon will stitch up the wound to let it heal properly. The stitches are called sutures.
Symptom
A sign of a disease or condition that the patient notices and reports to a doctor.
Syndrome
A collection of symptoms.
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Last Updated 29/10/2007