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Cap gas
Capillary blood gas; spell it out
Catcher's mask
Device used for patients with bleeding varices in throat to stop bleeding
Cathed
Catheterized; spell it out
Champagne tap
Clear tap; no blood
Chandelier sign
Intense amount of physical response, including near levitation from the bed to the chandelier on the ceiling, induced by examining for cervical motion tenderness in cases of pelvic inflammatory disease
Chapter
Usually refers to a delusional or hallucinatory patient (from legalese Chapter 51, etc.)
Chicken spray
Nickname for ethyl chloride spray, liquid used for transiently numbing injection sites
Circling the drain
Patient's future prospects of life are dim; rapid deterioration
Coag
Coagulation (time)
Code black
Deceased patient
Code brown
Incontinent patient
Code call
Urgent medical emergency
Code green
Ambulatory injury; walking wounded
Code red
Critical patient
Code yellow
Urgent trauma
Coke
Street name for cocaine
Consented
Statement is often made "The patient was consented for surgery." What is actually meant, of course, is that the patient signed an Informed Consent form. However, the misused form of "consent" is becoming quite popular, and the meaning is not distorted by this phrase. See "bovied" and "double-doc'ed" for further discussion on such terms.
Crack
Street name for a particularly potent crystalline solid form of cocaine
Crank
Mixture of crack cocaine and another stimulant, such as amphetamine
Crasher
Someone who passes out in ER (usually family member)
Crispy critter
Severely burned patient
Crit
Hematocrit; spell it out
Crock
Patient whose physical complaints are without organic or discernible basis or frankly bogus
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