Category: S

  • Special health authority

    A health authority which has unique national functions, or covers various regions. An example is UK Transplant, which manages the National Transplant Database and provides a 24-hour service for the matching and allocation of donor organs.  

  • Special

    Not ordinary, or for a specific purpose.  

  • Speak up

    To speak more loudly.  

  • Speak

    To say words or articulate sounds with the voice.  

  • Spastic paraplegia

    Paralysis of one side of the body after a stroke.  

  • Spastic gait

    A way of walking where the legs are stiff and the feet not lifted off the ground. A stiff movement of the legs while walking, usually the result of an upper motor neuron lesion and spasticity in the muscles of the lower extremity. There are several variations. Spasticity in the ankle plantar flexors results in…

  • Spastic diplegia

    A congenital form of cerebral palsy which affects mainly the legs. Referred to as spastic paraplegia as well, this is a state characterized by paralysis and abnormal stiffness in the muscles of the lower body.  

  • Spastic

    With spasms or sudden contractions of muscles. To spasm or uncontrolled skeletal muscle contraction. A term applied to any condition showing increased muscle tone: for example, spastic gait, or spastic colon. This is especially associated with some disease affecting the upper part of the nervous system connected with movement (upper neuron), so that its controlling influence…

  • Spasmus nutans

    A condition in which someone nods his or her head and at the same time has spasms in the neck muscles and rapid movements of the eyes. A combination of symptoms including a slow nodding movement of the head, nystagmus (involuntary movements of the eyes), and spasm of the neck muscles. It affects infants and…

  • Sparganosis

    A condition caused by the larvae of the worm Sparganum under the skin. It is widespread in East Asia. A disease caused by the migration of certain tapeworm larvae in the tissues beneath the skin, between the muscles, and occasionally in the viscera and brain. The larvae, which normally develop in frogs and reptiles, are…