HIGHER INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

"10 DE OCTUBRE" MEDICAL SCHOOL

WHAT'S PAIN LIKE ?

TOPICS: ENGLISH

AUTHORS: MAYDELIS RAMILA SERPA (6^th year)

NOEMI BARRIOS RAMOS (6^th year)

ELENA VARONA DE LA NOVAL (6^th year)

ANA ELSY TORRES KINET (6^th year)

TUTORS: MERCEDES VENTURA MUÑIZ B. ED.

NELSON DE LA FE SÁNCHEZ M. D.

ADVISERS: ARTURO J. SANTANDER MONTES

EUGENIO SANTANDER POZO

SPECIALITY: CLINICS

E-MAIL: fmdoct@infomed.sld.cu

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT

CONCLUSIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

Due to the need of 4^th and 5^th year students of Medicine of using

medical English and within this field all the language related to

the symptoms, it was our purpose to find a teaching tool in which

the terminology in relation to the pain-like sensation and the

diseases or entities corresponding to this specific terminology

could be showed up.

In order to attain our objective a right amount of updated books

and dictionaries were checked to find out all the expressions

related to the pain sensation with their corresponding Spanish

equivalents and to identify some illnesses or conditions in which

they can appear.

As a result, a total of 55 pain related expressions with

their Spanish equivalents and 64 diseases or entities were found.

These expressions characterize pains and aches and are

necessary to establish diagnoses. Therefore, this language is

essential as it is not included in their textbooks.

INTRODUCTION

As the medical students in 4^th and 5^th year of their career start

studying English for medical purposes it is very important to

know all the language related to the diseases and symptoms

considering their contribution to reach the right diagnosis.

Among the symptoms, it is particularly significant the pathologies

which present pain sensation that has different qualities

according to the area affected and the producing agent. A wide

vocabulary is used in order to describe this sensation that has to

be mastered by the students and even by physicians who have

teaching responsibilities or go to English speaking countries to

give medical help.

Therefore it is necessary to reinforce this knowledge, that does

not appear in the students’ textbooks and to make the

students and physicians conscious of its usefulness.

Therefore we decided to find a teaching tool which would help

students to acquire the expressions used to characterize pain

with their Spanish equivalents and within this to associate the

diseases and entities where this specialized terminology can be

used.

DEVELOPMENT

In this work a total of 55 expressions were found regarding all the

pain-like terminology along with its Spanish equivalents.

Later on, it was our task to identify the diseases, and entities

in which the different kinds of pain are present, so this would

facilitate the students' acquisition and familiarization with such a

language. As a result about 64 diseases and entities were

matched with their corresponding expressions.

EXPRESSIONS	SPANISH EQUIVALENTS	DISEASES/CONDITIONS
Abdominal cramps/ Stomache	Dolores de estómago	Gastritis/Gastric ulcer/ Hiatal hernia/Stomachache
Afterpains	Dolores de alumbramiento	Delivery
Backache	Dolor de espalda	Muscle contraction/Scholiosis
Bearing-down pain	Sensación de pesantez en el perineo/Dolor de pujos	Cystocele/Hemorrhoids/Pelvic inflammatory disease/Rectocele
Boring pain	Dolor penetrante	Pancreatitis
Burning pain	Dolor quemante con ardor	Peptic ulcer/Gastritis/MI
Chest pain	Dolor en el pecho	Coronary heart disease
Cluster headache	Dolor de cabeza en grupos	Migraine
Colicky pain	Cólico	Colitis/Giardiasis/Bowel obstruction
Constant pain	Dolor constante	Acute cholecistitis/pancreatitis
Contractions	Dolores del parto	Delivery
Crushing pain	Dolor aplastante/opresivo	Infarct
Dragging pain	Dolor dragante	Fracture
Earache	Dolor de oido	Otitis
Excruciating pain	Dolor agudisimo	Trigeminal neuralgia/ Acute glaucoma
False pains	Dolores falsos	Hysteria
Flank pain	Dolor del costado	Pleuritis/Urinary infection
Gnawing pain	Punzada/Dolor mordiente	Cancer/Ulcer
Headache	Dolor de cabeza	Migraine/hypertension
Histaminic headache	Dolor de cabeza histaminico	Migraine
Intermenstrual pain	Dolores intermenstruales	Menstruation
Intermittent pain	Dolor que viene y va	Peptic ulcer
Joint pain	Dolor articular	Arthritis/Bursitis
Labor pain	Dolor de parto	Delivery
Labor pain	Dolor de parto	Delivery
Localized pain	Dolor localizado	Cholecystitis/Appendicitis
Mild pain	Dolor leve	Osteocondrytis
Menstrual cramp	Dolor menstrual	Dolor menstrual
Pain in the side	Dolor en punto de costado	Pneumonia/Pleural effusion/TB
Pain when urinating	Dolor al orinar	Urethritis/Gonorrhea/ Pyelonephritis
Piercing pain	Dolor terebrante	Fracture
Phantom limb pain	Dolor de miembro fantasma	Amputation
Postoperative pain	Dolor postoperatorio	Hip fracture/Breast cancer/ Cesarean section
Premonitory pain	Dolores premonitorios	Uterine contractions
Pressure-like pain	Dolor opresivo	Ml/Acute Pulmonary edema/Acute pericarditis
Puncture headache	Dolor de cabeza por punción	Brain abcess/Myelitis
Radiating pain	Dolor irradiado	Peptic ulcer/Appendicitis
Referred pain	Dolor referido	Idiopatic ulcerative colitis
Reflexed headache	Dolor de cabeza reflejo	Cervical arthrosis/Visual problems
Root pain	Dolor radicular	Radiculitis
Severe pain	Dolor fuerte, severo	Cancer/Acute appendicitis
Sharp pain	Dolor agudo, clavado	Perforated peptic ulcer/Pneumonia
Shooting pain	Dolor fulgurante
Smarting pain	Escozor	Dermatitis
Sore eyes	Dolor de ojos	Glaucoma
Sore throat	Dolor de garganta	Tonsillitis
Steady pain	Dolor continuo	Gastritis
Tearing pain	Dolor desgarrante	Aortic aneurysm
Tenderness	Dolor a la palpaciòn	Hepatitis
Tension headache	Dolor de cabeza por tensiòn	Migraine
Throbbing pain	Dolor de cabeza pulsàtil	Migraine
Toothache	Dolor de diente o muela
Twinge (Knifelike pain)	Dolor lancinante	Perforated ulcer
Vascular headache	Dolor de cabeza vascular	Migraine
Wandering pain	Dolor errante, migratorio	Abdominal colic

CONCLUSIONS

1. All the terminology referring to pain is needed for 4^th and 5^th

year medical students as part of their English training because

such information is lacking in the English textbooks.

RECOMMENDATIONS

¨ To carry out a research to demonstrate the usefulness of this information.

¨ To elaborate an additional material for 4^th and 5^th year medical students with all these expressions and diseases to be used in class.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Herrera Mc Elioy Onyria. Spanish and English Medical Dictionary. Leppicot William D. Wilking, 1996; page 77.

2. Kelz Rochelle Ph. D. Delmar's English/Spanish Pocket Dictionary for Health Professionals. Delmar publishers, 1977; page 163, 346, 347.

3. Butterworths Medical Dictionary. C. Habana. Editorial Científico Técnica, 1986; page 1230.

4. Cambridge International Dictionary of English. Cambridge University Press, 1996; page 510.

5. Kumar Parveen & Clark Michael. Clinical Medicine. Bailliere Tindall, 1994.

6. Harrison's. Principles of Internal Medicine. International Edition, 1998.

7. Delvaux K. Lysens R. Am. J. Phys. Med. Rehabil.

Lumbosacral pain in athlete. 2001;80(5):388-91.

8. Multon KD and Parker JC. Arthritis Rheum. Effects of stress

management on pain behavior in rheumatoid arthritis.

2001;45(2):111-21.

9. Freeman Md. N. English J. Med. Case records of the general

Hospital. Case 13-2001. 2001;26;344(17):1314-20.

10. Kuttila SJ and Kuttila MH. Arch. Otolaryngol. Head Neck Surg.

Secondary otalgia in an adult population. 2001;127(4):401-5.

11. Courtney MJ and Cabraal D. Arch. Otolaryngol. Head

neck Surg. Tramadol vs. diclofenac for posttonsillectomy

analgesia. 2001,127(4):401- 5.

INDEX