GTTS

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Susan. I’m normally in Madison, Wisconsin, but I’m calling from northern Wisconsin.

I’m with my family on vacation, but I have a question for you.

I’m a nursing student in Madison, Wisconsin, and I’ve come across an acronym that’s GTTS, and it means drips.

I’m wondering what the history is behind GTTS.

It means what?

You know how in medical terminology there’s PRN, which is like used for as needed, or NPO means nothing by mouth.

Well, GTTS is used for drips when a medication is given as a drip.

Oh, okay.

Okay, right.

So you’re wondering if GTTS stands for get that titration started?

There you go.

Very nice, Martha.

Thank you.

Oh, la, la.

All right.

Thanks for calling.

Martha always likes to end on her being right.

Is that really what it is?

No, it’s not, Martha.

I wanted to stop the call before I was proved wrong.

And if I have to debunk this in the future, Martha, I’m going to show up on your doorstep with some dictionaries.

Grant hates debunking.

And the thing is, she should know better, Susan.

Yeah, it’s a derivative from Latin, right?

That’s exactly right.

Get that titration started.

No, it does derive from Latin, but not from titration.

Do you speak any French or Spanish?

No, I have some French.

All right, do you remember the word G-O-U-T-T-E?

Now that is Spanish for drop.

Well, it’s French for drop, but exactly, gota, G-O-T-A is Spanish for drop.

But these two words come from the same Latin word as the acronym that you gave us, the G-T-T-S.

And the singular is guta, G-U-T-T-A.

Martha, correct my pronunciation if I’m getting it wrong.

And then the plural form is guta.

And so what the G-T-T-S is, it’s a combination of the Latin word plus an S for the English plural.

So the GTT is from the gutte, and the S is the pluralized of it.

And it just means exactly what you said.

It means drips or drops.

And occasionally it has been assigned the exact measurement of 0.05 milliliters, but I don’t think most places use that.

As a matter of fact, I’m seeing some evidence here that the GTTS acronym is kind of on the way out because I don’t know that it’s actually being formally taught.

It is informally passed along, but I don’t know that it’s a formal part of anyone’s education these days in the medical field.

So, Grant, in other words, it’s a Latin word with a couple of letters knocked out and an S stuck on the end?

Exactly right.

Yeah, they’ve knocked the vowels out and they put an English S on there to make it plural.

And it means drops.

That’s pretty weird, isn’t it?

Yeah.

It’s also sometimes abbreviated as GT or just GTT.

But you need those acronyms.

Like the PRN that Susan mentioned means pro-renata, P-R-O-R-E-N-A-T-A, three words.

And it means as the situation demands.

And I love the fact that the medical profession still harkens back through its language to the days when everyone learned Latin as part of their medical training.

And, of course, most doctors and nurses don’t today, do they?

No, it’s not part of the curriculum at all.

So, Susan, good for you for digging beneath the surface.

I wonder how many doctors know what that abbreviation means.

No, no, no.

I’ve asked around.

You have?

I’ve asked several people, yeah, and no one’s been able to explain to me where it came from.

Well, now you can tell them from the Latin word for drop.

Excellent. Very cool.

Thanks for calling, Susan.

Great. Thank you very much.

All right. Bye-bye.

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