tetany
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈtɛtəni/
- Specialized
:
tetania
- Patients with vitamin D deficiency may experience symptoms of tetany, including muscle cramps and spasms.
- grass tetany
Examples
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(n13.) Subbiah V, Tayek JA. Tetany secondary to the use of a proton-pump inhibitor letter. Ann Intern Med 2002; 137(3):E219.
Academic text (2010) -
When a nurse notes "muscle spasms" in a patient who has just had a thyroidectomy and she does not recognize that she is observing hypocalcemic tetany, the teaching begins with this fact.
Academic text (2005) -
"It puts you into tetany, all your voluntary muscles locked, for six months.
Fiction book (1991) -
A previous report described hypocalcemia and tetany in a patient with a previous subtotal thyroidectomy who had been treated with lansoprazole for GERD.
Academic text (2010) -
She is the most likely one to first observe tetany after thyroidectomy (or the lethargy from too much calcium replacement), and she must recognize the problem in order to act.
Academic text (2005) -
We attribute the airway distress to tetany in synkinetically reinnervated laryngeal adductor muscles.
Academic text (2010) -
A doctor explained that tetany can occur when calcium levels drop too low in the body.
-
During the examination, the physician noticed the patient was in tetany due to a severe lack of calcium.
Synonyms
A condition causing muscle twitches, painful cramps, and sometimes seizures from low calcium
A condition that causes repeated muscle cramps and twitching, often from low calcium or vitamin D
A condition that causes muscle twitching, cramps, and sometimes seizures without fever, often from low calcium or vitamin D
Painful muscle twitching that comes and goes, sometimes with seizures, from low calcium or vitamin D
Surface Forms
Etymology
Tetany comes from an old Greek root tetan- that means 'tension' or 'to stretch', the same idea you see in the word tension and in tetanus. So think of muscles suddenly pulled tight — that's why tetany describes painful muscle cramps and twitching.