Medical slang is the slang of doctors, nurses, and other Hospital and Medical staff. One part of medical slang is the use of technical-looking acronyms to describe patients or situations, often facetiously, to other medical professionals. Some of these acronyms are considered unacceptable these days.

Acronyms

Descriptions of symptoms

• PFO - "probably fell over"
• PGT - "probably got thumped"
• UBI - "unexplained beer injury"

Other acronyms

• CTD - "circling the drain" (expected to die soon)
• DBI - "dirt bag index" - a number calculated from number of tattoos and missing teeth
• FLK - "funny looking kid" (sometimes used to note mongoloidism or low-level abnormalities of appearance)
• GLM - "good looking mum"
• GOMER - "get out of my emergency room"; patient, usually poor or elderly, in the emergency room with a chronic, non-emergency condition. Popularized by Samuel Shem in his novel House of God
• GPO - "good for parts only"
• TEETH - "tried everything else, try homeopathy"
• TTFO - "told to fuck off", instructed to go away

Slang terms

Terms for occupations

• Captain Kangaroo - head of a paediatrics department
• Gasser, gas passer - anaesthetist
• Slasher - surgeon
• Short-order chef - morgue worker

Other terms

• Angel Lust - A death erection.
• Crispy critter - severely burnt patient
• Departure lounge - geriatric ward
• Fascinoma - any interesting or amusing tumor or malignancy
• Pumpkin positive - lacking in intelligence; implies that the patient's brain is so small that shining a torch into their mouth would cause their head to light up like a pumpkin

External links

• The Slang of Doctors, Nurses, and Hospital Technicians
• Doctor slang is a dying art (BBC News, 18 August 2003)
• Slang words used in hospitals
• Weird Words: Gomer