Medical translation

Medical translation relates to specialized types of translation and has its own features. The translator who works with the medical documentation, should has good knowledge of medicine, to understand specific terminology in which medical men communicate, to be conversant in numerous reductions and abbreviations, to perform correct medical translation.

Each foreign language abounds hundreds thousand medical terms. The problem also is down to the fact that the Medical Dictionary replenishes every year with new terms. More often it concerns modern methods of diagnostics and treatment of patients.

Promptly the panoply of specific lexicon in such narrow fields of medicine as oncology, roentgenology, immunology and radiology increases. For instance, the number of terms which oncologists use, has exceeded 35 thousand. And in each field of medicine doctors use the special lexicon so specific that experts who have necessary knowledge and experience in concrete field can perform medical translation only.

Medical translation is characterized by a large quantity of synonyms that also makes certain complexity for the translator. Cases when the same term can be expressed by several words are frequent. So, a word "opukhol’ " (tumor) while translating into English can sound as "mass", "tumor", "formation", "swelling"," blastoma". If this word is required to be translated into German it can be made also in several ways: "Geschwulst", "Wulst", "Schwellung", "Anschwellung", "Tumor", "Knoten".

The expert who is performing medical translation should understand a synonymic number of medical terms, as doctors use specific terms communicating with each other, and talking to patients, medical men use the words having lowered professional colouring.

So, if in conversation with a patient doctor will apply a word-combination "stomach swelling" in dialogue with colleagues he will prefer to use professional slang, using the term "meteorism". It should be necessarily considered, performing medical translation.

In medical language there are different kinds of professional combinations which also are necessary for considering. If the translator unfamiliar with these verbal niceties, medical translation will not be authentic.