russian medical terms

There is a differece between russian and western medical schools, although they share basic concepts, of course. Russian medical schools are included in the official registry of legal medical schools issued by World Health Organisation. Russian doctors study anatomy, physiology and all clinical medical subjects as everywhere in the world. Still russian medical terms and approaches confuse western physicians. Sometimes just different words are used to name the same subject- for instance failure-to-thrive (western) is the same as hypotrophy (mostly russian). Sometimes there are more serious difficulties: western physician don’t use the term “hip dysplasia” as far as some minor abnormalities of a hip joint are considered to be normal developmental stages of a joint. Unfortunately, in general, russian medicine is less effective and modern in comparison with with westerm, presumably British-American medicine.

The reasons for these splits are mostly historical. One can spend days explaining how it happened. Briefly, Russia was almost isolated from the world for many years of communist regime and it threw the whole country back in its development. On the other hand, Soviet Union spent huge finances on armament, heavy industry, space etc. and very little on healthcare. The whole healthcare system suffered from chronic poverty for tens of years. Now all kind of foreign medical books and the whole interner are available for russian medical students and doctors, but the situation is still poor.

One can find few major things, that make russian medical terms difficult for understanding. They are:

USE OF DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATIONS

The most relevamt example is so called perinatal encephalopathy- western classification divides it into three categories, while russian classification includes 5 or 6 (it depends J ) categories.

SOCIAL REASONS

The diagnosis of perinatal encephalopathy or developmental delay or hypotrophy is with a child for a few years because otherwise he will not get enough massage, speech therapy and special intervention- due to official instructions, only “sick” children may have additional hours of speech therapy, massage etc.

The best way to” surf” within these problems is to ask for professional help. Nevertheless, it would be useful to understand some basics. Here are few medical terms that are frequently mentioned in russian medicals. An excellent resourse describing russian medical terms can be found at http://www.adoptmed.org/topics/glossary-of-russian-medical-terms.html

PERINATAL ENCEPHALOPATHY (PE)

It is the scariest of russin medical terms. This is a heterogeneous syndrome characterized by symptoms of central nervous system dysfunction in newborns. An infant with neonatal encephalopathy may exhibit abnormal level of consciousness, seizures, tone and reflex abnormalities, apnea, and feeding difficulties. The definition of PE is relatively the same in russia and western countries. But the incidence of PE is unimaginably different: while almost 95% of kids born in Russia have this diagnosis in his medical file, the incidence of PE is two to nine per 1000 term (1-3). The above western studies were well designed, large cohorts of children (from 40 000 till 5 million newborns) were studied. The fact of such tremendous differencies in statistics just by itself makes russian medicals doubtful. Probably, the reason for such a hyperdiagnosis of PE is a different approach to the interpretation of clinical findings: for instance, while hyperalertness, hyperexcitability in a neworn is a mild, self limited form of PE with excellent prognosis, in Russia, such symptoms will be definitely treated and described with some scary “hypertension-hydrocepalic syndrome”.

The approach to the child, who is diagnosed with perintal encephalopathy in Russia still must be cautious because he or she, of course, may be one of those 2 to 9 per 1000, who had real brain injury that can cause poor neurologic outcome. Again, professional opinion is beneficial.

FAILURE-TO-THRIVE

This term describes weight and sometimes height deficiency or a delay in physical development. Russian term for failure-to-thrive is hypotrophy. This condition is found frequently in orphans and is usually caused by malnutrition, social reasons (“abused and neglected children don’t grow) etc. It is almost always reversible (see http://www.performance-vision.com/gery/StuntGrowth.htm)

On the other hand, failure-to-thrive can be a manifestation of hundreds of severe diseases and cautious approach is esential in its evaluation

1. Declining diagnosis of birth asphyxia in California : 1991-2000.
   Wu YW; Backstrand KH; Zhao S; Fullerton HJ; Johnston SC
   Pediatrics 2004 Dec;114(6):1584-90.
2. Falling incidence of hypoxic ishaemic encephalopathy in term infants
   Hull J; Dodd KL
   Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1992 May;99(5):386-91.
3. Birth asphyxia: incidence, clinical course and outcome in a Swedish population.
   Thornberg E; Thiringer K; Odeback A; Milsom I
   Acta Paediatr 1995 Aug;84(8):927-32.