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Definition of Tetanus
1. Noun. An acute and serious infection of the central nervous system caused by bacterial infection of open wounds; spasms of the jaw and laryngeal muscles may occur during the late stages.
2. Noun. A sustained muscular contraction resulting from a rapid series of nerve impulses.
Definition of Tetanus
1. n. A painful and usually fatal disease, resulting generally from a wound, and having as its principal symptom persistent spasm of the voluntary muscles. When the muscles of the lower jaw are affected, it is called locked-jaw, or lickjaw, and it takes various names from the various incurvations of the body resulting from the spasm.
Definition of Tetanus
1. Noun. (pathology countable) A serious and often fatal disease caused by the infection of an open wound with the anaerobic bacterium ''Clostridium tetani'', found in soil and the intestines and faeces of animals. ¹
2. Noun. (physiology countable) A state of muscle tension caused by sustained contraction arising from a rapid series of nerve impulses which do not allow the muscle to relax. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Tetanus
1. an infectious disease [n -ES] : TETANOID [adj]
Medical Definition of Tetanus
1. 1. An acute, often fatal infectious disease caused by the anaerobic, spore forming bacillus Clostridium tetani, the agent most often enters the body through contaminated puncture wounds (for example those caused by metal nails, wood splinters or insect bites), although other portals of entry include burns, surgical wounds, cutaneous ulcers, injections sites of drug abusers, the umbilical stump of neonates (t, neonatorum) and the postpartum uterus. 2. Physiological tetanus, a state of sustained muscular contraction without periods of relaxation caused by repetitive stimulation of the motor nerve trunk at frequencies so high that individual muscle twitches are fused and cannot be distinguished from one another, also called tonic spasm and tetany. Origin: Gr. Tetanos, from tenein = to stretch This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Tetanus
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