Wednesday 2 September 2015

USAGE OF "STATUS POST"





    Usage of status post

This is another common area where I see a lot of confusion.  To be frank, there are people working in this industry for so many years who do not even have an idea that status post can be used with two meanings – with a comma before and without.

Eg. Ovarian cancer status post chemotherapy and radiation

Is it that the patient has cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiation or is it whether the patient had chemotherapy and radiation resulting in cancer??????? There is definitely confusion here.

Now, suppose I use punctuation??????
Ovarian cancer, status post chemotherapy and radiation.

The meaning is clear.  The patient first had ovarian cancer, so was given chemotherapy and radiation.

The same sentence if I write as follows……
Chemotherapy and radiation, status post ovarian cancer.  This gives a wrong meaning again.  You do not give chemotherapy and radiation and then the patient gets ovarian cancer.

Chemotherapy and radiation status post ovarian cancer.  Without the comma here, the meaning is right.

A comma makes a lot of difference in meaning with the phrase "status post."..............SO BE CAREFUL.

4 comments:

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  2. So, does it mean: X, status post y = y status post x ?

    ReplyDelete
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  4. Which is correct please:
    40yo, G2P2, s/p 2 wks SVD, here for PPD eval.

    or

    40yo, G2P2, 2 wks s/p SVD, here for PPD eval.

    The patient gave birth 2 wks ago. Does the "2 wks" go before "s/p" or after?

    ReplyDelete