Author: Glossary
-
Percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
A treatment for pain in which weak electrical currents are applied to acupuncture needles inserted into trigger points or dermatomes near painful body parts. PENS is sometimes used to treat episodic low back pain and other regional pain syndromes. It may be used as an alternative to TENS.
-
Percutaneous coronary intervention
Any procedure in which catheters are placed within the coronary arteries to study them or open them when they are obstructed. Examples of this are balloon angioplasty, atherectomy, and stent placement.
-
Percussor
A device used for diagnosis by percussion, consisting of a hammer with a rubber or metal head.
-
Threshold percussion
Percussing lightly with the fingers on a glass-rod pleximeter, the far end of which is covered with a rubber cap. The cap is usually placed on an intercostal space. This technique is used to confine the percussion to a very small area.
-
Palpation percussion
Percussion in which the examiner uses his or her fingers to feel vibrations that are produced within the body, instead of listening for the sounds produced by striking the body.
-
Mediate percussion
Percussion performed by using the fingers of one hand as a plexor and those of the opposite hand as a pleximeter.
-
Immediate percussion
Percussion performed by striking the surface directly with the fingers.
-
Finger percussion
Striking of the examiner’s finger as it rests upon the patient’s body with a finger of the examiner’s other hand.
-
Deep percussion
Forceful percussion used to elicit a note from a deeply seated tissue or organ.
-
Auscultatory percussion
Percussion combined with auscultation.