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Facial palsy: inability to move the muscles of the face usually on only one side due to inflammation of a nerve.
Faecal occult: a test that uses a piece of chemically sensitive paper to detect blood in a stool; to screen for possible signs of cancer in the large intestine or rectum
Fallopian tube: either of two long, slender ducts connecting a woman’s uterus to her ovaries where eggs are transported form the ovaries to the uterus and sperm may fertilise an egg
Fascitis: inflammation of the layer of connective tissue that covers, separates and supports muscles
Febrile: a term used to describe something related to a fever, such as seizures (seizures occurring in a child who has a fever)
Femur: the bone located between the hip and the knee; the thighbone
Fibrillation rapid: inefficient contraction of muscles fibres of the heart caused by the disruption of nerve impulses
Fibroadenoma: a non-cancerous tumour commonly found in the breast
Fibroid: a non cancerous tumour of the uterus made up of smooth muscle and connective tissue
Fibrosis: abnormal formation of connective or scar tissue
Fistula: an abnormal passageway from one organ to another or from an organ to the body surface
Fetal/foetal distress: physical distress experienced by a foetus because of lack of oxygen
Fetal: monitoring the use of an instrument to record or listen to a foetus’s heartbeat during pregnancy and labour
Fetus/foetus: the term used to refer to an unborn child from 8 weeks after fertilisation to birth
Fontanelles: the two soft spots on a baby’s scalp that are the result of gaps in the skull where bones have not yet fused
Food poisoning: stomach pain, diarrhoea, and/or vomiting caused by eating contaminated food
Forceps delivery: the use of an instrument that cups the baby’s head (called an obstetric forceps) to help delivery a baby
Fracture: a bone break
Fulminant: a disorder that begins suddenly and worsens quickly
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