Category: W

  • Whoop

    A loud noise made when inhaling by a person who has whooping cough. A noisy convulsive drawing in of the breath following the spasmodic coughing attack characteristic of whooping cough. The sonorous and convulsive inspiratory crow following a paroxysm of whooping cough.  

  • White noise instrument

    A small electronic device worn in the ear. It combines sounds of many different frequencies. It is used to mask internal noise in the ear due to tinnitus.  

  • White leg

    A condition which affects women after childbirth, in which a leg becomes pale and inflamed as a result of lymphatic obstruction. A condition that may affect women after childbirth in which there is clotting and inflammation in a vein in the leg. The leg becomes pale, swollen, and tense and is painful; the condition resolves…

  • Whitehead

    A small white swelling formed when a sebaceous gland becomes blocked. A small, hard, painless, white blemish on the skin that results when a hair follicle becomes blocked with an oily substance called sebum. A closed comedo containing pale, dried sebum.  

  • White finger

    A condition in which a finger has a mottled discoloured appearance because its blood vessels are damaged. The thumb is usually not affected. Very severe Cases can result in finger loss. It occurs most commonly in Raynaud’s disease. Spasm of the blood vessels in the finger resulting in a white appearance. The condition is common…

  • White commissure

    Part of the white matter in the spinal cord near the central canal.  

  • White

    Of a colour like snow or milk. The achromatic color of maximum lightness that reflects all rays of the spectrum.  

  • Whipple’s disease

    A disease in which someone has difficulty in absorbing nutrients and passes fat in the faeces, the joints are inflamed and the lymph glands enlarged [Described 1907. After George Hoyt Whipple (1878-1976), US pathologist. Nobel prize for Pathology and Medicine 1934.] A rare disease, occurring only in males, in which absorption of digested food in…

  • Whiplash shake syndrome

    In young babies, a series of internal head injuries caused by being shaken violently. They can result in brain damage leading to speech and learning disabilities, paralysis, seizures, blindness and hearing loss. They are often life-threatening.  

  • Whiplash injury

    An injury to the vertebrae in the neck, caused when the head jerks backwards, often occurring in a car that is struck from behind. An imprecise term for injury to the cervical vertebrae and adjacent soft tissues. It is produced by a sudden jerking or relative backward or forward acceleration of the head with respect…