Botox
Botox: A highly purified preparation of botulinum toxin A, a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Botox is injected, in very small amounts, into specific muscles, as a treatment. It acts by blocking the transmission of nerve impulses to muscles and so paralyzes (relaxes) the muscles. Botox treatment has found a growing number of uses from easing muscle spasms (as, for example, in spastic cerebral palsy) to its increasingly widespread cosmetic use in flattening wrinkles.
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- Botulinum toxin
Clostridium botulinum, botulism
- Bottlefeeding
Bottlefeeding: The practice of feeding an infant a substitute for breast milk. Pediatricians generally advise exclusively breastfeeding (that is, breastfeeding with no supplementary formula) for all full-term, healthy infants for the first 6 months of life. However, many infants are bottlefed today, at least in part. For infants to achieve normal growth and maintain normal […]
- Botulism
An uncommon, but potentially very serious illness, a type of food poisoning, that produces paralysis of muscles via a nerve toxin called botulinum toxin (“botox”) that is manufactured by bacteria named Clostridium botulinum. There are various types of botulism, including: Food-borne botulism — from eating food that contains the botulinum toxin. Wound botulism — caused […]
- Bougie
Bougie: A thin cylinder of rubber, plastic, metal or another material that a physician inserts into or though a body passageway, such as the esophagus, to diagnose or treat a condition. A bougie may be used to widen a passageway, guide another instrument into a passageway, or dislodge an object. Bougies are available in a […]
- Bougienage
Bougienage: A procedure involving the use of a bougie. A bougie is a thin cylinder of rubber, plastic, metal or another material that a physician inserts into or though a body passageway, such as the esophagus, to widen the passageway, guide another instrument into a passageway, or dislodge an object. An alternate spelling of “bougienage” […]