Medical Diagnosis "PUO" or "PVO"

[acarrick]

Officer record shows Trench Fever but also "PUO" (or PVO), can someone confirm what this stands for please?

[tipperary]

pyrexia unknown origin i think fever.Been asked a lot.john

[thor432]

Hi Andrew

PUO is Pyrexia of Unknown Origin, Pvo might just be the way its been written.

Dave

[acarrick]

Thanks people.

[centurion]

In translation it seems to have meant "He's got a fever but I've no idea what caused it much less what to do about it but if I put it in Latin and abbreviate it it'll look as if I know what I'm talking about". A technique still in use today

[Doc]

In translation it seems to have meant "He's got a fever but I've no idea what caused it much less what to do about it but if I put it in Latin and abbreviate it it'll look as if I know what I'm talking about". A technique still in use today

Bear in mind that in 1914/19, the Military Services did not access to labatory facilities in the same way we have nowadays - if at all the medical scientific procedures had been discovered at that time!

Though I have to admit your comment may have a ring of truth to it!

Doc

[tipperary]

There were a number of mobile medical labs in service but i would still agree with Centurions translation

[centurion]

In much more recent time it might have been "there's a bug going around"

The first time my GP diagnosed a bug going around it turned out to be meningitis and if it hadn't been for an Indo Chinese junior doctor at the local hospital who recognised it for what it was and started injecting major quantities of anti biotic I wouldn't be typing this. Ironically the second time it turned out to be Asian Flu which nearly did for me as well - so pardon me if I sometimes appear a mite cynical about doctors' diagnoses

[DrB]

With all the "bugs" going about, an FUO is not a surprizing diagnosis. I saw a ton of this at the battalion aid station in "Nam, including one poor lieutenant whom we stripped and piled ice and alcohol on to reduce a life-threatening fever of 105 degrees. He said a lot of nasty things to us during this treatment, but we saved his brain from cooking.

A lot of "experts" raise their nose at this diagnosis, but in a remote BAS with no lab aids, a diagnosis of FUO is rather common and not to be derided. Untreated, it can kill people.

Doc B

[trooper23]

Centurion

I would suggest the very fact you were indeed diagnosed - with menigitis and had your life saved as a consequence, would mean by definition you didn't have a PUO would it not ? Same goes for the Asian flu incident

Furthemore simply to lable the whole medical profession as not having a clue on the basis of the experience with one GP is possibly overstating the case. I could equally say the same about lawyers, telephone engineers, builders, car salespersons etc etc. from my experience of same.

Jerry

[centurion]

Centurion

I would suggest the very fact you were indeed diagnosed - with menigitis and had your life saved as a consequence, would mean by definition you didn't have a PUO would it not ? Same goes for the Asian flu incident

Furthemore simply to lable the whole medical profession as not having a clue on the basis of the experience with one GP is possibly overstating the case. I could equally say the same about lawyers, telephone engineers, builders, car salespersons etc etc. from my experience of same.

Jerry

It would help if you read my post properly before making broad comments. Just where do I label the whole medical profession as not having a clue?. It was two separate GPs by the way - don't make assumptions without evidence. I was making the point that Drs are not infallible and can miss things and it happened to me twice..

[Robert Dunlop]

In translation it seems to have meant "He's got a fever but I've no idea what caused it much less what to do about it but if I put it in Latin and abbreviate it it'll look as if I know what I'm talking about".

In much more recent time it might have been "there's a bug going around"

centurion, this was not and is not the meaning of PUO. It is a very specific concept that means recurrent fever that has lasted more than a specified period of time and does not have a diagnosis. As such, PUO immediately raises the question of a specific set of infectious and other causes of prolonged fever, including brucellosis and TB (for example) for infectious diseases or lymphoma (for example) as a non-infectious disease that causes recurrent fever.

A diagnosis of PUO triggers a whole series of specific investigations, which is why the concept exists.

Robert

[auchonvillerssomme]

I was medavaced from Belfast with PUO in 1985. After a week of fever, hallucinations etc, on the morning I was due to be transferred back with the thought of some nice sick leave I was feeling better. Cpl Jackson RAMC took my temperature and it was normal, the good man made a slip of the pen and there it was recorded a nice hot 39c.