| vital ultraviolet | Rays necessary or helpful to normal growth; they promote calcium metabolism, are antirachitic in action, and have wavelengths between 3200 and 2900 A |
|---|---|
| noeud vital | A circumscript region in the lower part of the medulla oblongata, near the apex of the calamus scriptorius, interpreted by M. Flourens (1858) as a nerve centre controlling respiration. Synonym: vital knot, vital node. Origin: Fr. (05 Mar 2000) |
| electro-vital | Derived from, or dependent upon, vital processes; said of certain electric currents supposed by some physiologists to circulate in the nerves of animals. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| forced vital capacity | Vital capacity measured with the subject exhaling as rapidly as possible; data relating volume, expiratory flow, and time form the basis for other pulmonary function tests, e.g., flow-volume curve, forced expiratory volume, forced expiratory time, forced expiratory flow. (05 Mar 2000) |
| abraded wound | 1. <pathology> The wearing away of a substance or structure (such as the skin or the teeth) through some unusual or abnormal mechanical process. 2. <clinical sign> A superficial injury to the skin or other body tissue caused by rubbing or scraping resulting in an area of body surface denuded of skin or mucous membrane. (11 Nov 1997) |
| avulsed wound | A wound caused by or resulting from avulsion. (05 Mar 2000) |
| glancing wound | A tangential wound that makes a furrow without perforating the skin. Synonym: crease wound, glancing wound. (05 Mar 2000) |
| penetrating wound | A wound with disruption of the body surface that extends into underlying tissue or into a body cavity. (05 Mar 2000) |
| perforating wound | A wound with an entrance and exit opening. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gunshot wound | A wound made with a bullet or other missile projected by a firearm. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gutter wound | A tangential wound that makes a furrow without perforating the skin. Synonym: crease wound, glancing wound. (05 Mar 2000) |
| wound | 1. A hurt or injury caused by violence; specifically, a breach of the skin and flesh of an animal, or in the substance of any creature or living thing; a cut, stab, rent, or the like. "Showers of blood Rained from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen." (Shak) 2. An injury, hurt, damage, detriment, or the like, to feeling, faculty, reputation, etc. 3. An injury to the person by which the skin is divided, or its continuity broken; a lesion of the body, involving some solution of continuity. Walker condemns the pronunciation woond as a "capricious novelty." It is certainly opposed to an important principle of our language, namely, that the Old English long sound written ou, and pronounced like French ou or modern English oo, has regularly changed, when accented, into the diphthongal sound usually written with the same letters ou in modern English, as in ground, hound, round, sound. The use of ou in Old English to represent the sound of modern English oo was borrowed from the French, and replaced the older and Anglo-Saxon spelling with u. It makes no difference whether the word was taken from the French or not, provided it is old enough in English to have suffered this change to what is now the common sound of ou; but words taken from the French at a later time, or influenced by French, may have the French sound. <zoology> Wound gall, an elongated swollen or tuberous gall on the branches of the grapevine, caused by a small reddish brown weevil (Ampeloglypter sesostris) whose larvae inhabit the galls. Origin: OE. Wounde, wunde, AS. Wund; akin to OFries. Wunde, OS. Wunda, D. Wonde, OHG. Wunta, G. Wunde, Icel. Und, and to AS, OS, & G. Wund sore, wounded, OHG. Wunt, Goth. Wunds, and perhaps also to Goth. Winnan to suffer, E. Win. 140. Cf. Zounds. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| wound botulism | <microbiology> A form of illness that results from the liberation of botulism toxin from the anaerobic bacteria Clostridium botulinum, found in an infected wound. (27 Sep 1997) |
| wound dehiscence | <surgery> A premature bursting open or splitting along natural or surgical suture lines. A complication of surgery that occurs secondary to poor wound healing. Risk factors include diabetes, advanced age, obesity and trauma during the post-surgical period. (27 Sep 1997) |
| wound fever | Elevation of temperature following an injury. Synonym: symptomatic fever, wound fever. (05 Mar 2000) |