Sequela

Intermediate 🏥 Healthcare / Medical

Definition

A consequence or complication that shows up after a disease resolves—the unwelcome gift that keeps giving.

Example Usage

Post-polio sequelae developed decades after the initial infection.

Origin

From Latin 'sequela' (consequence, continuation); plural is sequelae.

Fun Fact

Some sequelae are worse than the original disease; post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome can be completely debilitating.

Source: Medical prognosis and recovery

Related Terms

Advanced

tracheostomy

An emergency surgical procedure where doctors cut a hole in your neck and stick a tube in your windpipe to help you breathe when the usual routes aren't working. It's the medical equivalent of breaking a window when the door won't open, except way more sterile and performed by professionals. Often a lifesaving intervention that looks exactly as dramatic as it sounds.

🏥 Healthcare / Medical
Beginner

ultrasound

Sound waves so high-pitched that only dogs and medical equipment can appreciate them, typically above 20 kilohertz. In healthcare, it's the technology that lets doctors peek inside your body without the whole cutting-you-open inconvenience. Best known for giving expectant parents grainy photos they'll insist look exactly like Uncle Bob.

🏥 Healthcare / Medical
Intermediate

opportunistic

In medicine, describing infections that exploit weakened immune systems like biological vultures circling compromised hosts. These pathogens normally mind their business but attack when your defenses are down from HIV, chemotherapy, or other immunosuppressive conditions. In business, it means seizing advantages without moral constraints, which is somehow considered a positive trait in capitalism.

🏥 Healthcare / Medical
Beginner

diagnostic

A fancy medical term for the tests and procedures doctors use to figure out what's actually wrong with you, ranging from simple blood work to expensive machines that go "ping." It's the detective work phase of healthcare where your symptoms become clues and your doctor becomes Sherlock Holmes with a stethoscope. The results usually come back either terrifyingly specific or frustratingly vague.

🏥 Healthcare / Medical
Intermediate

Holistic

An approach that treats the whole person rather than just the broken bit, which sounds lovely until you realize it means your knee pain appointment now includes questions about your childhood and your relationship with your mother. Medicine meets philosophy.

🏥 Healthcare / Medical
Intermediate

gangrene

Death of body tissue due to lack of blood supply or bacterial infection, resulting in decay. When parts of you decide to check out permanently—not coming back from this one.

🏥 Healthcare / Medical

Translate This Term

See “Sequela” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on XShare on FacebookShare on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

Damages

The amount of money a court says your suffering is worth, which is always simultaneously too much according to the defen...