abscess
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GC: n

S: WebMD – http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/abscess (last access: 29 October 2014); NHS – http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/abscess/Pages/Introduction.aspx (last access: 20 July 2017).

N: 1. 1610s, from Latin abscessus “an abscess” (Celsus), literally “a going away,” from stem of abscedere “withdraw, depart, retire,” from ab- “away” + cedere “to go”. The notion is that humors “go from” the body through the pus in the swelling.

2. Localized action of pus within tissues, organs, or confined spaces.

3. It is the result of the body’s inflammatory response to a foreign body or a bacterial, viral, parasitic, or fungal infection. An abscess usually dries out and resolves when it is drained of pus. The most common parts of the body affected by abscesses are the face, armpits, arms and legs, rectum, sebaceous glands (oil glands), and the breast during lactation.

4. Treatment consists of cutting into the wall to drain the pus and giving antibiotics. If infective contents enter the bloodstream, they may be carried to remote tissues, seeding new abscesses. 4. A sterile abscess is one that is not produced by an infection. It is caused by irritants, such as foreign bodies or injected drugs, and medications that have not been totally absorbed. Sterile abscesses quite often heal into hardened scar tissue.

5. There are two types of abscesses, septic and sterile. Most abscesses are septic, which means that they are the result of an infection.

6. Cultural interrelation: Season 7 episode 15 – Bombshells. Across the hospital, House is having a conversation with Cuddy when he has his Eureka! moment. He realized that Ryan has a Staph abscess, and while the antibiotics given earlier treated the bacteria in the blood, they did not reach the ones still protected in the abscess. One of the doctors and realizes that the source of the abscess is the pipe bombs Ryan had been making, and the cuts on his abdomen are shrapnel wounds, not skateboarding injuries.

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=abscess (last access: 9 July 2024). 2. DORLAND p. 5. 3 to 5. ENCY – http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/abscess.aspx; MW – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abscess (last access: 26 October 2014). 6. POL – http://www.politedissent.com/archives/7007 (last access: 31 October 2014).

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CR: bacterium, myalgia.