Respiratory Terminology
Included In This Lesson
Study Tools For Respiratory Terminology
Outline
Overview
- Respiratory System
- General Respiratory Terms
- Divisions of the Respiratory System
- Ventilation and Breathing
- Common Terms
Nursing Points
General
- General Respiratory Terms
- Carbon Dioxide – capn/o
- Oxygen – ox/o or -oxia
- Lungs – pulmon/o
- Chest – thorac/o or -thorax
- Air – pneum/o
- Divisions of the Respiratory System
- Upper Airway
- Nose – nas/o or rhin/o
- Throat – pharyng/o
- Tonsils – tonsill/o
- Voice box – laryng/o
- Lower Airway
- Trachea – trache/o
- Bronchi – bronchi/o
- Lungs – pulmon/o or pneumon/o
- Alveoli – alveol/o
- Pleura – pleur/o
- Diaphragm – phren/o
- Upper Airway
- Ventilation & Breathing
- Breathing – spir/o or -pnea
- Spitting – -ptysis
- Straight/Upright (positional) – orth/o
- Common Respiratory Terms
- Alveoli – alveol/o
- Bronchi – bronchi/o
- Epiglottis – epiglott/o
- Lobe – lob/o
- Mediastinum – mediastin/o
- Nose – nas/o
- Straight or Upright – orth/o
- Oxygen – ox/o
- Chest – pector/o
- Throat – pharyng/o
- Diaphragm – phren/o
- Nose – rhin/o
- Sinus – sinus/o
- Chest – thorac/o
- Smell – -osmia
- Oxygen – -oxia
Nursing Concepts
- Anatomy & Physiology
- Communication
- Gas Exchange
- Oxygenation
Transcript
In this lesson we’re going to talk about the medical terminology for the respiratory system.
To get started we need to cover some general respiratory terms. Anytime we’re dealing with gas exchange we always want to look at carbon dioxide and oxygen. Anytime we are dealing with carbon dioxide we refer to it as capno, and oxygen as oxo or oxia as a suffix.
Just like with the body as a whole, anytime we’re dealing with the chest we were refer to it as the thorax or thoraco, and the lungs are often referred to as pulmono. Another term you need to be familiar with is pneumo, which means air. So, if a patient has air that becomes trapped inside the chest (the throrax), and not in the lungs where it’s supposed to be, it causes a condition called pneumothorax.
Now the respiratory system is divided into two airways, the upper airway and the lower airway. The upper airway is everything above the larynx. So these are things like the nose, throat, tonsils, and includes the voice box or the larynx, and all the sinuses. Anytime you’re dealing with the nose, you should always want to refer to it as naso or rhino. The throat is often referred to as pharyngo, and the tonsils tonsilo. The voice box, or the larynx, is often referred to as laryngo. So you would see this in the term laryngoscopy, which is to visually inspect the larynx with an instrument.
The lower airway is where the lungs are and includes all the associated airways. So these are things like the trachea, bronchi, alveoli, pleura, and the diaphragm. The trachea you should always refer to as a tracheo and the bronchi refer to as bronchio. Now the lungs can be referred to as pulmono, or pneumono and the alveoli will be referred to as alveolo. The pleura, which is a membrane that helps to cover the lungs, is often referred to as pleuro. You would see this in the term like pleuritis, which is inflammation of the pleura. Now the diaphragm is a little bit different, in that the word that used is phreno. You would see this and the word phrenic nerve, which is the nerve that innervates the diaphragm to stimulate contraction.
When we talk about breathing there’s a common combining form used to talk about breathing which is Spiro. You would see this in the word spirometer, which is this device here and is used to improve breathing function after something like surgery. The other term that you would see is pnea, which is often used to describe a rate or effort. So dyspnea would be difficulty breathing, apnea would be the absence of breathing, tachypnea would be really fast breathing and a bradypnea would be really slow breathing.
Other terms that you may see our ptysis, which is spitting. If a patient is spitting up blood or coughing up blood you actually refer to this as hemoptysis. Another term you may see is ortho, and it may not make a lot of sense in the ventilation or breathing. But if you have a patient that has orthopnea, that means that they have to sit up in an upright position in order to breathe efficiently. So if a patient is orthopneic, that means that they’re using pillows to put them in a better breathing position because they have some sort of breathing issue.
And as always I want to include some common terms dealing with this specific body system. We’ve covered a lot of these but a few that you may not notice would be something like lobe, which is referred to as Lobo, or the term for mediastinum, which is mediastino. Take some time to practice these, because some of these words are really tricky to learn what they mean, and also really difficult to say.
Okay so let’s recap. We’re focusing on the anatomy of the respiratory system for this section of medical terminology. We focus on the upper and lower airway which is everything above the larynx and below the larynx. Remember that everything above the larynx is going to include the pharynx which is a throat, the sinuses and the nose. And the lower airway is going to include the trachea, bronchi, the lungs, the alveoli and the pleura. This is everything in the chest. And finally we also want to focus our medical terms on ventilation and breathing, and also positioning.
And that’s it for our lesson on medical terminology associated with the respiratory system. Make sure you check out all the resources attached to this lesson. Now, go out and be your best self today, and as always, happy nursing!
Study Guide pre LPN-RN
Concepts Covered:
- Cardiac Disorders
- Cardiovascular
- Emergency Care of the Cardiac Patient
- Shock
- Shock
- Disorders of the Posterior Pituitary Gland
- Endocrine
- Disorders of Pancreas
- Disorders of the Thyroid & Parathyroid Glands
- Gastrointestinal
- Upper GI Disorders
- Liver & Gallbladder Disorders
- Lower GI Disorders
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Brain
- Neurological
- Noninfectious Respiratory Disorder
- Respiratory
- Hematologic Disorders
- Delegation
- Perioperative Nursing Roles
- Acute & Chronic Renal Disorders
- Respiratory Emergencies
- Disorders of the Adrenal Gland
- Documentation and Communication
- Preoperative Nursing
- Legal and Ethical Issues
- Immunological Disorders
- Oncology Disorders
- Female Reproductive Disorders
- Cognitive Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Trauma
- Intraoperative Nursing
- Medication Administration
- Vascular Disorders
- Renal Disorders
- Male Reproductive Disorders
- Sexually Transmitted Infections
- Infectious Respiratory Disorder
- Gastrointestinal Disorders
- Newborn Complications
- Peripheral Nervous System Disorders
- Studying
- Integumentary Disorders
- Communication
- Microbiology
- Emergency Care of the Trauma Patient
- Urinary Disorders
- Integumentary Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Circulatory System
- EENT Disorders
- Postoperative Nursing
- Neurological Emergencies
- Disorders of Thermoregulation
- Neurological Trauma
- Basics of NCLEX
- Fundamentals of Emergency Nursing
- Integumentary Important Points
- Multisystem
- Test Taking Strategies
- Tissues and Glands
- Urinary System
- Emergency Care of the Neurological Patient
- Neurologic and Cognitive Disorders
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Spinal Cord
- Renal and Urinary Disorders
- Nervous System
- Respiratory Disorders
- Respiratory System
- Infectious Disease Disorders
- EENT Disorders
- Emergency Care of the Respiratory Patient
- Health & Stress
- Skeletal System
- Endocrine System
- Hematologic System
- Digestive System
- Reproductive System
- Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders
- Muscular System
- Sensory System
- Basics of Human Biology
- Adult
- Anxiety Disorders
- Depressive Disorders
- Dosage Calculations
- Understanding Society
- Concepts of Pharmacology
- Newborn Care
- Adulthood Growth and Development
- Pregnancy Risks
- Postpartum Complications
- Substance Abuse Disorders
- Bipolar Disorders
- Learning Pharmacology
- Psychotic Disorders
- Prenatal Concepts
- Prefixes
- Suffixes
- Fetal Development
- Terminology
- Proteins
- Statistics
- Med Term Basic
- Med Term Whole
- Labor Complications
- Labor and Delivery
- Postpartum Care
- Hematologic Disorders
- Cardiovascular Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Oncologic Disorders
- Eating Disorders
- Personality Disorders
- Trauma-Stress Disorders
- Developmental Considerations
- Concepts of Mental Health
- Psychological Emergencies
- Somatoform Disorders
- Prioritization
- Factors Influencing Community Health
- Community Health Overview