Medical slang

rdf:langString Medical slang

rdf:langString Medical slang is the use of acronyms and informal terminology to describe patients, other healthcare personnel and medical concepts. Some terms are pejorative. In English, medical slang has entered popular culture via television hospital and forensic science dramas such as ER, House M.D., NCIS, Scrubs, and Grey's Anatomy. Examples of pejorative language include bagged and tagged for a corpse, a reference to the intake process at a mortuary; donorcycle for motorcycle or PFO for pissed [drunk] and fell over. Less offensive are the terms blue pipes for veins; cabbage for a heart bypass (coronary artery bypass graft or CABG), and champagne tap for a flawless lumbar puncture, that is, one where erythrocyte count is zero.