With modern day easy access to information, many health staff may be presumptuous of patients' level of understanding of medical terms and abbreviations. A recent audit of consent forms in Orthopaedic trauma in our department showed that doctors used abbreviations in 21% of consent forms; this was seen to increase to 48% during the re-audit. The findings motivated us to conduct this study to evaluate the level of patients' understanding of commonly used abbreviations/terminologies.

This questionnaire-based study recruited patients from both our elective and Trauma Orthopaedic units. Patient age, gender, medical and educational backgrounds were all randomised. Patients' understanding of 24 abbreviations/terminologies, selected from consent forms, patients' discharge letters and verbal communication with patients, were quantitatively and qualitatively assessed. Patients' perspectives were also sought.

All 182 patients who participated were proficient in English language. Most patients(80.2%) understood the term “physio,” however only 3.8% could correctly interpret “DHS”. 10% of patients understood “TKR,” 8.2% understood “THR” and 3.8% understood “NOF”. Interestingly, although 61.5% understood “DVT,” only 8.2% understood “PE” with most interpreting it as physical education/exercise. Only 8.2% related “MI” to any form of cardiac pathology. Almost all patients confirmed the use of unfamiliar abbreviations by health staff during communication.

Our study revealed that patients were not conversant with many abbreviations used in Orthopaedics. There is a need for greater awareness amongst doctors and other health staff about the indiscriminate use of abbreviations. From patients' perspective, interpretation should be given when using abbreviations or avoid their use altogether.