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Let’s call a spade a spade, not a gardening tool
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Terms in medicine are not just words; it’s sometimes life and death decision. The authorities confirmed the drug is safe, and FDA has approved it but the stigma is a powerful thing escpecially if the term is a misnomer.
Do we always name things correctly?
Stem cell transplantation
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, for example, is often called a bone marrow transplant. The latter is misleading and deleterious to the field of transplantation and real-world outcomes. Why? Transplantation success depends on the availability of cells from healthy donors; to a nonmedical ear, “bone marrow harvest” sounds incredibly frightening. The fear of procedure could potentially influence the individual’s choice to donate or not. In this case, the accuracy of the medical term is paramount. Today, most transplant centers use stem cells mobilized from the peripheral blood (an IV hooked to one’s arm). The healthy donor considering a stem cell donation may feel more at ease donating blood than having a painful procedure under anesthesia to harvest marrow.
The wrongly coined term “bone marrow transplant” “refers” to a painful procedure that hurts the number of stem cell bank donations. In this example, perception and exactitude of a medical term are everything.
