I know “PO” means “by mouth”, and “PRN” means “as needed”. So, I was wondering what may be the Latin phrase (and abbreviation), if any, for “puffs”. For example, an inhaler usually requires two puffs per use as a dosage. Also, out of morbid curiosity, what would be the Latin for a suppository or enema “by butt”? (You just knew I HAVE to ask!)
The only thing I’m seeing is “puffs” along with the standard latin stating when/how often to take it. For example, two puffs po q4-6h or two puffs po prn
And “by butt” would be pr (by rectum).
Are we expecting the relevant professionals to actually be fluent in Latin? I suppose “puffs” would be something like “flamina” or flabra (don’t take my word for it, though). Though I’d be worried that patients might not understand instructions in abbreviated Latin and that’s asking for trouble when someone screws up their medication.
What you’re looking for are sig codes, from sig ~ signa, signetur ~ write (write on the label).
Best I could find for me: PF one puff, PFS two puffs.
BTW, the inhaler is MDI.
Sadly, or happily, the ER doctor that saw my meds list (and MHx - Medical History) on Saturday said it was the best he’d ever seen.
CMC fnord!
There is an old tale of some expensive private school that sent out a letter announcing that its fees would go up to so much “per anum”. One parent wrote back to say they preferred to pay through the nose.
Coincidentally, there’s been some professional encouragement here in the UK for hospital doctors to move more towards plain language in letters:
The dictionary also has spiramina (“poet. and in post-class. prose”). Anyway, perhaps better suited to alchemical monographs rather than medicine bottles.
nurses are the BOMB at this jargon? Patois? I’m not sure what to call it.
NPO= nil per os = nothing by mouth
puff is just English for use your Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) to send out an amount of medication for you to inhale quickly.
some meds are given per rectum or per vagina meaning into the rectum or into the vagina, respectively.
OS means Oculus Sinister= Left eye, OD means Oculus Dexter= right eye
there is a push here in the US to use plainer language, and to use computer to type out the scripts, rather than those scrawls the doctors use
Shibboleth?
CMC fnord!
If I remember my history correctly, Latin was chosen, probably Eurocentricly, to reduce the confusion of languages. Puffs is a fairly recent invention that has to be comprehensible to pts, so I doubt it originates from Latin