Birth Trauma Glossary P - V
birth trauma terms:
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Paraplegia - Paralysis of the legs (from the waist down).
Parietal Lobe - One of the two parietal lobes of the brain located behind the frontal lobe at the top of the brain.
Perception - The ability to make sense of what one sees, hears, feels, tastes or smells. Perceptual losses are often very subtle, and the patient and/or family may be unaware of them.
Perseveration - The inappropriate persistence of a response in a current task which may have been appropriate for a former task. Perseverations may be verbal or motoric.
Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) - A long-standing condition in which the patient utters no words and does not follow commands or make any response that is meaningful. See Persistent Unawareness.
Phonation - The production of sound by means of vocal cord vibration.
Physiatrist - Pronounced Fizz ee at' rist. A physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Some physiatrists are experts in neurologic rehabilitation, trained to diagnose and treat disabling conditions. The physiatrist examines the patient to assure that medical issues are addressed; provides appropriate medical information to the patient, family members and members of the treatment team. The physiatrist follows the patient closely throughout treatment and oversees the patient's rehabilitation program.
Physical Therapist - The physical therapist evaluates components of movement, including: muscle strength, muscle tone, posture, coordination, endurance, and general mobility. The physical therapist also evaluates the potential for functional movement, such as ability to move in the bed, transfers and walking and then proceeds to establish an individualized treatment program to help the patient achieve functional independence.
Plasticity - The ability of cellular or tissue structures and their resultant function to be influenced by an ongoing activity.
Plateau - A temporary or permanent leveling off in the recovery process.
Post Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) - A period of hours, weeks, days or months after the injury when the patient exhibits a loss of day-to-day memory. The patient is unable to store new information and therefore has a decreased ability to learn. Memory of the PTA period is never stored, therefore things that happened during that period cannot be recalled. May also be called Anterograde Amnesia.
Posture - The attitude of the body. Posture is maintained by low-grade, continuous contraction of muscles which counteract the pull of gravity on body parts. Injury to the nervous system can impair the ability to maintain normal posture, for example holding up the head.
Pre-Morbid Condition - Characteristics of an individual present before the disease or injury occurred.
Problem-Solving Skill - Ability to consider the probable factors that can influence the outcome of each of various solutions to a problem, and to select the most advantageous solution. Individuals with deficits in this skill may become "immobilized" when faced with a problem. By being unable to think of possible solutions, they may respond by doing nothing.
Prognosis - The prospect as to recovery from a disease or injury as indicated by the nature and symptoms of the case.
Program/Service Types - The following program/service categories describe the array of organized services (not mutually exclusive) and not an exhaustive list available for the rehabilitation of persons with brain injury.
Prone - Lying on one's stomach.
Proprioception - The sensory awareness of the position of body parts with or without movement. Combination of kinesthesia and position sense.
Psychologist - A professional specializing in counselling, including adjustment to disability. Psychologists use tests to identify personality and cognitive functioning. This information is shared with team members to assure consistency in approaches. The psychologist may provide individual or group psychotherapy for the purpose of cognitive retraining, management of behavior and the development of coping skills by the patient/client and members of the family.
Range of Motion (ROM) - Refers to movement of a joint (important to prevent contractures).
Reasoning, Abstract - Mode of thinking in which the individual recognizes a phrase that has multiple meanings and selects the meaning most appropriate to a given situation. The term "abstract" typically refers to concepts not readily apparent from the physical attributes of an object or situation.
Reasoning, Concrete - The ability to understand the literal meaning of a phrase.
Reasoning, Problem-Solving - The ability to analyze information related to a given situation and generate appropriate response options. Problem-solving is a sequential process that typically proceeds as follows: identification of problem; generation of response options; evaluation of response option appropriateness; selection and testing of first option; analysis as to whether solution has been reached. A patient/client may discontinue making a cup of coffee because the sugar bowl is empty, even though sugar is readily available in a nearby cabinet. A patient/client may easily navigate his way into a room crowded with furniture, but request staff assistance to navigate his way out.
Reasoning, Sequencing - The ability to organize information or objects according to specified rules, or the ability to arrange information or objects in a logical, progressive manner. Nearly every activity, including work and leisure tasks, requires sequencing. For example, in cooking certain foods it is important that ingredients be added and mixed in a specified order; in dressing, undergarments must be put on prior to outergarments.
Receptor - the terminal structure of a neuron, specialized to receive stimuli and transmit them to the spinal cord and brain.
Recreation Therapist - Individual within the facility responsible for developing a program to assist persons with disabilities plan and manage their leisure activities; may also schedule specific activities and coordinate the program with existing community resources.
Rehabilitation - Comprehensive program to reduce/overcome deficits following injury or illness, and to assist the individual to attain the optimal level of mental and physical ability.
Rehabilitation Counselor - Also called Vocational Counselor. A specialist in social and vocational issues who helps the patient develop the skills and aptitudes necessary for return to productive activity and the community.
Rehabilitation Facility - Agency of multiple, coordinated services designed to minimize for the individual the disabling effects of one's physical, mental, social, and/or vocational difficulties and to help realize individual potential.
Rehabilitation Nurse - A nurse specializing in rehabilitation techniques as well as basic nursing care. Nurses assist the patient and family in acquiring new information, developing skills, achieving competence and exhibiting behaviors that contribute to the attainment of a healthy state.
Residential Services - Assumes a 24-hour residential environment outside the home and includes 24-hour provision of or access to support personnel capable of meeting the client's needs. (Adopted by the PostAcute Committee of ISIG on Head Injury October 28, 1991.)
Retrograde Amnesia - Inability to recall events that occurred prior to the accident; may be a specific span of time or type of information.
Seizure - An uncontrolled discharge of nerve cells which may spread to other cells nearby or throughout the entire brain. It usually lasts only a few minutes. It may be associated with loss of consciousness, loss of bowel and bladder control and tremors. May also cause aggression or other behavioral change.
Sensation - Feeling stimuli which activate sensory organs of the body, such as touch, temperature, pressure and pain. Also seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting.
Sensorimotor - Refers to all aspects of movement and sensation and the interaction of the two.
Sensory Depravation - Serotonin system is effected through means of fasting and other related activities. The levels of serotonin in the thalamus are shifted causing the thalamus to loose some of its ability to control the flow of information coming in from the senses.
Sensory Integration - Interaction of two or more sensory processes in a manner that enhances the adaptiveness of the brain.
Sequencing - Reading, listening, expressing thoughts, describing events or contracting muscles in an orderly and meaningful manner.
Serotonin - A chemical, 5-hydrozytryptamine (5-HT), present in blood platelets, the gastrointestinal tract, and certain regions of the brain. It plays an important role in blood clotting, stimulating a strong heart beat, initiating sleep, fighting depression (prescription drugs that treat depression raise the brain's levels of serotonin) and causing migraine headaches in susceptible individuals (because of its ability to constrict blood vessels or cause them to spasm). Serotonin is synthesized from the amino acid L-tryptophan. Serotonin (and, therefore, L-tyrptophan) also serves as a precursor for the pineal hormone melatonin, which regulates the body's clock.
Sheltered Workshop - A work setting certified as such by the Wage & Hour Division. It provides transitional and/or long-term employment in a controlled and protected working environment for those who are unable either to compete or to function in the open job market due to their disabilities. May provide vocational evaluation and work adjustment services.
Shunt - A procedure to draw off excessive fluid in the brain. A surgically-placed tube running from the ventricles which deposits fluid into either the abdominal cavity, heart or large veins of the neck.
Somatosensory - Sensory activity having its origin elsewhere than in the special sense organs (such as eyes and ears) and conveying information to the brain about the state of the body proper and its immediate environment.
Spasticity - An involuntary increase in muscle tone (tension) that occurs following injury to the brain or spinal cord, causing the muscles to resist being moved. Characteristics may include increase in deep tendon reflexes, resistance to passive stretch, clasp knife phenomenon, and clonus.
Spatial Ability - Ability to perceive the construction of an object in both two and three dimensions. Spatial ability has four components: the ability to perceive a static figure in different positions, the ability to interpret and duplicate the movements between various parts of a figure, the ability to perceive the relationship between an object and a person's own body sphere, and the ability to interpret the person's body as an object in space.
Speech-language Pathology Services - A continuum of services including prevention, identification, diagnosis, consultation, and treatment of patients regarding speech, language, oral and pharyngeal sensorimotor function.
Spontaneous Recovery - The recovery which occurs as damage to body tissues heals. This type of recovery occurs with or without rehabilitation and it is very difficult to know how much improvement is spontaneous and how much is due to rehabilitative interventions. However, when the recovery is guided by an experienced rehabilitation team, complications can be anticipated and minimized; the return of function can be channeled in useful directions and in progressive steps so that the eventual outcome is the best that is possible.
Subacute - May follow a period of acute rehabilitation; not necessarily hospital based; typical length of rehabilitation stay 6-24 months (short to intermediate term); stay based on demonstrated improvement; identifiable team and program with specialized unit.
Subdural - Beneath the dura (tough membrane) covering the brain and spinal cord.
Substance P - An 11-amino acid peptide that is believed to be important as a neurotransmitter in the pain fiber system. This substance may also be important in eliciting local tissue reactions resembling inflammation.
Supervised Living - Setting is a home which is like other homes in the neighborhood in terms of size and number of residents. Consumers are provided individualized care, supervision, support and training services to maximize and/or maintain function and self-direction. Staff is present at night and other times when the consumer is present.
Supine - Lying on one's back.
Supported Independent Living - Setting is a home chosen by the consumer who is primarily independent. Program offers support to assist the resident in maximizing and/or maintaining independence and self-direction. Staff is available as needed and at planned intervals to offer assistance and support but not to provide supervision.
Suppository - Medicine contained in a capsule which is inserted into the rectum so that the medicine can be absorbed into the blood stream.
Synapse - The point of junction between two neurons in a neural pathway, where the termination of the axon of one neuron comes into close proximity with the cell body or dendrites of another. At this point, where the relationship of the two neurons is one of contact only, the impulse traveling in the first neuron initiates an impulse in the second neuron. Synapses are polarized, i.e., the impulses pass in one direction only. They are susceptible to fatigue, offer a resistance to the passage of impulses, and are markedly susceptible to the effects of oxygen deficiency, anesthetics, and other agents, including therapeutic drugs and toxic chemicals.
Tactile Defensiveness - Being overly sensitive to touch; withdrawing, crying, yelling or striking when one is touched.
Task Analysis - Breakdown of a particular job into its component parts; information gained from task analysis can be utilized to develop training curricula or to price a product or service.
Temporal Lobes - There are two temporal lobes, one on each side of the brain located at about the level of the ears. These lobes allow a person to tell one smell from another and one sound from another. They also help in sorting new information and are believed to be responsible for short-term memory.
- Right Lobe - Mainly involved in visual memory (i.e., memory for pictures and faces).
- Left Lobe - Mainly involved in verbal memory (i.e., memory for words and names).
Thalamus - A large ovoid mass of gray matter at the base of the brain, the chief center for transmission of sensory impulses to the cerebral cortex.
Tracking, Visual - Visually following an object as it moves through space.
Transitional Living - Non-medical residential program providing training for living in a setting of greater independence. The primary focus is on teaching functional skills and compensating for abilities that cannot be restored.
Tremor, Intention - Course, rhythmical movements of a body part that become intensified the harder one tries to control them.
Tremor, Resting - Rhythmical movements present at rest and may be diminished during voluntary movement.
Unilateral Neglect - Paying little or no attention to things on one side of the body. This usually occurs on the side opposite from the location of the injury to the brain because nerve fibers from the brain typically cross before innervating body structures. In extreme cases, the patient may not bathe, dress or acknowledge one side of the body.
Urinary Tract Infection - When bacteria have reproduced to a large number in the bladder. This can cause fever, chills, burning on urination, urgency, frequency, incontinence or foul smelling urine.
Verbal Apraxia - Impaired control of proper sequencing of muscles used in speech (tongue, lips, jaw muscles, vocal cords). These muscles are not weak but their control is defective. Speech is labored and characterized by sound reversals, additions and word approximations.
Vestibular - Pertaining to the vestibular system in the inner ear and the brain which senses movements of the head. Disorders of the vestibular system can lead to dizziness, poor regulation of postural muscle tone and inability to detect quick movements of the head.
Vocational Evaluation - An organized and comprehensive service staffed by specialists who systematically and comprehensively utilize work activities (real or simulated) and/or educational services as the focal point for educational and vocational assessment and exploration. In addition, psychological testing, counseling, social summaries, occupational information, etc., are other evaluation tools that are used. It incorporates the medical, psychological, social, vocational, educational, cultural, and economic data for establishment and attainment of individual goals.
