Orthopedic Glossary

Plain-English explanations of the words you’ll hear in our exam rooms — so nothing gets lost in translation.

Orthopedic medicine has a lot of specialized vocabulary that can be confusing if you’ve never heard it before. The pages below decode the most common terms in everyday language: what the word actually means, why clinicians use it, and when you might hear it during a visit at OSI. These are short, bookmarkable reference pages — not a substitute for a conversation with your physician, but a way to fill in the gaps between appointments.

Medications & injections

NSAID

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug — what ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have in common.

Corticosteroid

The “cortisone” in a cortisone shot — and why it’s nothing like the steroids an athlete misuses.

Acetaminophen (Tylenol)

A pain reliever that is NOT an NSAID, and why that difference matters for your stomach and kidneys.

Opioid

Hydrocodone, oxycodone, tramadol — when they’re used after surgery and why less is now more.

Inflammation & tissue

Inflammation

The body’s response to injury — swelling, warmth, redness, pain. Useful short-term, harmful if it lingers.

Tendinopathy vs tendinitis

Why we stopped saying “tendinitis” for most long-standing tendon problems.

Bursitis

An irritated bursa — the tiny fluid sac that cushions a tendon as it glides over bone.

Cartilage

The shock-absorbing surface inside a joint. Not the same thing as meniscus or ligament.

Meniscus

The two C-shaped shock absorbers in each knee. A small tear isn’t automatically a surgical problem.

Ligament vs tendon

Both are tough rope-like tissue. One connects bone to bone, the other connects muscle to bone.

Labrum

The rubbery rim around the shoulder or hip socket. A SLAP tear, Bankart tear, and hip labral tear all involve the labrum.

Arthritis & joints

OA vs RA

Osteoarthritis is mechanical wear. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. Both are “arthritis,” treated very differently.

Bone spur (osteophyte)

Extra bone the body grows around a worn joint. Often blamed for pain it didn’t cause.

Synovitis

Inflammation of the joint lining — the tissue that makes the slippery fluid inside your knee or shoulder.

Injuries

Sprain vs strain

A sprain is a ligament injury. A strain is a muscle or tendon injury. Both hurt.

Dislocation vs subluxation

Completely out of socket, versus partially slipped out and back in.

Fracture types

Hairline, displaced, comminuted, greenstick, stress — what each word tells your surgeon.

Impingement

A tendon or nerve getting pinched inside a joint during motion — common in shoulders and elbows.

Diagnostics

MRI vs CT vs X-ray

X-rays show bone. CT shows bone in 3D. MRI shows soft tissue — ligaments, tendons, cartilage.

Orthopedic ultrasound

Live imaging used in the clinic to guide injections into tendons and small joints.

DEXA & bone density

The scan that tells us whether your bones are osteopenic, osteoporotic, or normal.