Anatomy and Physiology Vocab: Medical Suffixes

While anatomy & physiology courses tend to be all about biology, anatomy, and other body-related science, there's a smidgen of them dedicated to language. The words used in the medical world all have their specific meanings, and even broken down into their most basic components they still have meaning.

Suffixes are pretty amazing. They have the power to change the meaning of one word into something else entirely.

Bam. A whole new word, just by adding a little bit at the end. Like I said: amazing.

There are quite a few suffixes in the medical world and it can be a task to remember them all. To help you, I've got some of the most common ones right here!

Suffix	Meaning
-algia	Pain
-cyte	Cell
-ectomy	Removal
-itis	Inflammation
-oma	Tumor; mass
-opsy	To view
-gram	A record

Now that you've got the suffixes and their meanings down, let's put them to good use. Here are some common medical terms that use the preceding suffixes, in context:

- Fibromyalgia is a common ailment in which one suffers chronic, widespread pain.

- The most common surgery performed in the United States is appendectomy, or the removal of the appendix.

- Bronchitis is the inflammation of the mucous membranes of the bronchi.

- To determine certain diseases, a biopsy may be performed, in which tissue is removed for analysis.

- A mammogram is the image(s) obtained by mammography, in which breast tissue is scanned for the possible presence of cancer.

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