Orthopedic Glossary
Plain-English explanations of the words you’ll hear in our exam rooms, so nothing gets lost in translation.
Orthopedic medicine has a lot of specialized vocabulary that can be confusing if you’ve never heard it before. The pages below decode the most common terms in everyday language: what the word actually means, why clinicians use it, and when you might hear it during a visit at OSI. These are short, bookmarkable reference pages, not a substitute for a conversation with your physician, but a way to fill in the gaps between appointments.
Medications & injections
NSAID
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug, what ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have in common.
Corticosteroid
The “cortisone” in a cortisone shot, and why it’s nothing like the steroids an athlete misuses.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
A pain reliever that is NOT an NSAID, and why that difference matters for your stomach and kidneys.
Opioid
Hydrocodone, oxycodone, tramadol, when they’re used after surgery and why less is now more.
Inflammation & tissue
Inflammation
The body’s response to injury, swelling, warmth, redness, pain. Useful short-term, harmful if it lingers.
Tendinopathy vs tendinitis
Why we stopped saying “tendinitis” for most long-standing tendon problems.
Bursitis
An irritated bursa, the tiny fluid sac that cushions a tendon as it glides over bone.
Cartilage
The shock-absorbing surface inside a joint. Not the same thing as meniscus or ligament.
Meniscus
The two C-shaped shock absorbers in each knee. A small tear isn’t automatically a surgical problem.
Ligament vs tendon
Both are tough rope-like tissue. One connects bone to bone, the other connects muscle to bone.
Labrum
The rubbery rim around the shoulder or hip socket. A SLAP tear, Bankart tear, and hip labral tear all involve the labrum.
Arthritis & joints
OA vs RA
Osteoarthritis is mechanical wear. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. Both are “arthritis,” treated very differently.
Bone spur (osteophyte)
Extra bone the body grows around a worn joint. Often blamed for pain it didn’t cause.
Synovitis
Inflammation of the joint lining, the tissue that makes the slippery fluid inside your knee or shoulder.
Injuries
Sprain vs strain
A sprain is a ligament injury. A strain is a muscle or tendon injury. Both hurt.
Dislocation vs subluxation
Completely out of socket, versus partially slipped out and back in.
Fracture types
Hairline, displaced, comminuted, greenstick, stress, what each word tells your surgeon.
Impingement
A tendon or nerve getting pinched inside a joint during motion, common in shoulders and elbows.
Diagnostics
MRI vs CT vs X-ray
X-rays show bone. CT shows bone in 3D. MRI shows soft tissue, ligaments, tendons, cartilage.
Orthopedic ultrasound
Live imaging used in the clinic to guide injections into tendons and small joints.
DEXA & bone density
The scan that tells us whether your bones are osteopenic, osteoporotic, or normal.
Surgical terms
Arthroscopy
“Scope” surgery, using a pencil-thin camera through small incisions instead of opening the joint.
Arthroplasty
Joint Replacement, resurfacing a worn-out joint with metal and plastic components.
Arthrodesis (fusion)
Permanently locking a joint so it doesn’t move. Usually done when the joint is too damaged to replace.
ORIF
Open Reduction, Internal Fixation, the official name for “lining up a broken bone and holding it with plates and screws.”
Osteotomy
Deliberately cutting a bone to realign it, used to shift weight off a worn part of the knee or correct a deformity.
Debridement
Cleaning out damaged tissue or loose fragments inside a joint.
Autograft vs allograft
Your own tissue versus donor tissue, when each is used in ACL and other reconstructions.
Recovery & rehab
Weight-bearing status
NWB, TTWB, PWB, WBAT, FWB, what each abbreviation means for how you walk after surgery.
Range of motion (ROM)
How far a joint can move. Active, passive, and assisted ROM, each has a place in recovery.
DVT
Deep vein thrombosis, why we use blood thinners and early walking after lower-extremity surgery.