Medical Acryonyms

In fall of 2006, the Alpine Club sponsored a Wilderness First Aid class, taught by WMI (of NOLS), and we had about 30 participants. It would be a bad idea to try to summarize the concepts from the course on a webpage, but I feel it is OK to list some of the acronyms and definitions from the course. This is intended as a reminder for those of us who took the course, and not as medical advice.

NOLS -- National Outdoor Leadership School
WMI -- Wilderness Medicine Institute, a part of NOLS
MOI -- Mechanism Of Injury (referring to spinal injury)
BSI -- Body Substance Isolation (i.e. wear gloves)
ABCDE -- Airway management, Breathing adequacy, Circulation, Disability, Environment/Expose
SAMPLE -- Symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Pertinent medical history, Last intake/output, Events preceding injury/illness
SOAP -- Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan (and anticipated problems)
OPQRST -- speed of Onset, what Provokes/Palliates the pain, Quality of the pain, pain Radiates or Refers or Regular, how Severe (and has changed?), Time the pain has been occuring for
HR -- Heart Rate
RR -- Respiratory Rate
LOC -- Level of Consciousness
AVPU -- (referring to LOC): Alert, responsive to Verbal stimulus, responsive to Painful stimulus, Unresponsive
A+Ox3 -- Alert and Oriented times three (numbers range from 1 to 4)
SCTM -- Skin Color, Temperature, Moisture
PCC (as a SCTM) -- Pale, Cool and Clammy
PWD (as a SCTM) -- Pink, Warm and Dry (i.e. healthy)
HPI -- History of Pressent Illness
CSM -- Circulation, Sensation and Motion (in hands and feet)
ROM -- Range of Motion
RICE -- Rest, Ice (20 min), Compression, Elevation (above heart)
TBSA -- Total Surface Area Burned
NSAID -- Non-steriodal anti-inflammatory (e.g. ibuprofen, aspirin, NOT paracetamol/acetaminophen )
TIL -- Traction-in-line (e.g. for moving broken appendages, dislocations)
CPR -- Cardiopulmonary Reuscitation
STOP -- (when to stop giving CPR): Starts breathing, Transfer of Care, Out of strength, Physician pronounces dead
AMS -- Acute Mountain Sickness -- in it's severest form, AMS becomes HACE
HACE -- High Altitude Cerebral Edema
HAPE -- High Altitude Pulmonary Edema -- different than AMS/HACE
S/S -- Signs (observations) / Symptoms (what patient describes)
PAS -- the NOLS/WMI Patient Assessment System
ToSTOP -- Toxins, Sugar/Seizure, Temperature, Oxygen, Pressure

wikipedia def'n of shock

Hypovolemic -- Insufficient blood volume due to loss of liquid; most common type of shock
Cardiogenic -- Failure of heart go pump enough blood
Distributive -- Insufficient blood volume due to dilation of blood vessels
septic (a type of distributive) -- often caused by toxins from fungi or bacteria
anaphylactic (a type of distributive) -- allergic reaction
neurogenic (a type of distributive) -- from trauma to spinal cord (rare)
Obstructive -- blood flow is impeded
Endocrine -- based on endocrine disturbances

California Institute of Technology

Medical Acryonyms