The medical term for tooth decay, in which acids made by plaque bacteria dissolve enamel and form cavities, is dental caries.
Missing Word
caries
Caries form when plaque bacteria turn sugars and starches into acid that demineralizes enamel. They are preventable with brushing, flossing, fluoride and regular dental care.
Category: Oral Cavity Disorders
Question 2
Painful swallowing, which can occur when Barrett esophagus leads to ulceration or stricture, is called odynophagia.
Missing Word
odynophagia
Odynophagia means pain on swallowing. It differs from dysphagia, which is difficulty swallowing, and it is an alarm symptom that needs evaluation.
Category: Upper GI Disorders
Question 3
Passage of fresh, bright red blood from the rectum, a common finding in ulcerative colitis, is called hematochezia.
Missing Word
hematochezia
Hematochezia means bright red blood passed from the rectum, usually from bleeding low in the GI tract such as the inflamed colon in ulcerative colitis. It differs from melena, the black, tarry stool of upper GI bleeding.
Category: Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Question 4
Removal of the entire stomach to treat gastric cancer is a total gastrectomy.
Missing Word
gastrectomy
A gastrectomy removes all or part of the stomach. Surgery is the primary treatment for gastric cancer, aiming to remove the tumor with a cancer-free margin.
Category: Upper GI Disorders
Question 5
When an inflamed diverticulum perforates, a walled-off pocket of pus can form beside the colon, an abscess that may need to be drained.
Missing Word
abscess
An abscess is a localized collection of pus enclosed by inflamed tissue. In diverticulitis it signals a complicated course and may be drained through the skin or in surgery, along with antibiotics.
Category: Lower GI Disorders
Question 6
An abnormal channel that forms between a loop of bowel and another organ or the skin, a known complication of Crohn disease, is a fistula.
Missing Word
fistula
A fistula is an abnormal tunnel between two surfaces. Because Crohn disease inflames the full thickness of the bowel wall, fistulas and strictures are characteristic complications.
Category: Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Question 7
When a patient with suspected appendicitis tightens the abdominal muscles as the nurse's hand approaches, in anticipation of pain, the finding is called guarding.
Missing Word
guarding
Guarding is tensing of the abdominal wall to protect a painful area. It differs from rigidity, a boardlike stiffness the patient cannot relax, which suggests peritonitis.
Category: Lower GI Disorders
Question 8
A stoma that sinks back to or below the level of the surrounding skin, which makes the pouch hard to seal, has undergone retraction.
Missing Word
retraction
Stomal retraction is a serious ostomy complication that lets output leak under the barrier and damage the peristomal skin. The nurse reports it to the provider and the wound and ostomy nurse.
Category: Ostomy Care
Question 9
A flapping tremor of the hands when the arms are held out with the wrists bent back, a sign of hepatic encephalopathy, is called asterixis.
Missing Word
asterixis
Asterixis is a brief, repeated loss of muscle tone that makes the outstretched hands flap. It signals toxins such as ammonia affecting the brain when the liver fails.
Category: Liver Disease
Question 10
Kidney failure that develops as a result of advanced liver disease, often first noticed as a falling urine output, is called hepatorenal syndrome.
Missing Word
hepatorenal
Hepatorenal syndrome is kidney dysfunction caused by severe liver disease rather than by direct damage to the kidneys themselves. The nurse tracks intake and output and reports a decline promptly.
Category: Liver Disease
Question 11
When the bowel pushes outward through a stoma so that it protrudes much farther from the abdomen than before, the complication is called prolapse.
Missing Word
prolapse
Stomal prolapse is a serious complication in which bowel protrudes through the stoma. It is reported to the provider, and colostomy irrigation is not done while the stoma is prolapsed.
Category: Ostomy Care
Question 12
For a patient whose stomach empties too slowly to tolerate feedings, a feeding tube may be placed through the abdominal wall directly into the middle section of the small intestine as a jejunostomy.
Missing Word
jejunostomy
A jejunostomy tube delivers formula directly into the jejunum, bypassing a stomach that empties poorly. A gastrostomy tube is used when the stomach can tolerate feedings.
Category: Nutrition Support
Question 13
The presence of gallstones, which usually cause no harm until a stone blocks a duct, is called cholelithiasis.
Missing Word
cholelithiasis
Cholelithiasis means stones in the gallbladder. A stone that blocks the cystic duct causes biliary colic or cholecystitis, and one in the common bile duct can cause jaundice.
Category: Biliary and Pancreatic Disorders
Question 14
In a patient with an ulcerative colitis flare, sudden widening of the large bowel with fever, a rapid pulse and a tender, swollen abdomen signals toxic megacolon, a complication that can lead to perforation.
Missing Word
megacolon
Toxic megacolon is a nonobstructive dilation of the colon with signs of systemic toxicity, a life-threatening complication of inflammatory bowel disease, most often ulcerative colitis. The thinned, stretched wall can perforate and spill bowel contents into the abdomen, so the nurse reports increasing distention, fever and tachycardia at once.
Category: Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Question 15
When the GI tract cannot properly absorb nutrients such as fats, vitamins and minerals, the disorder is called malabsorption.
Missing Word
malabsorption
Malabsorption can involve one nutrient or many and causes diarrhea, fatty stools, weight loss and deficiency signs. Causes include celiac disease, pancreatic insufficiency and bowel surgery.
Category: Nutritional Disorders