Yvette Neisser Moreno (asker) Jan 8, 2013:

>Fvasconcellos I agree with you entirely. Thank you for clarifying. At the health clinic where I interpret, the nurses frequently use terms like "sharp" and "stabbing" to help patients describe the type of pain they're having.

Filippe Vasconcellos de Freitas Guimarães Jan 8, 2013:

Re. types of pain "Transfictivo" is not a type of pain, but a descriptive term used (in this case, by the patient) to report the sensation of pain. There are myriad such terms, e.g. crushing, stabbing, piercing, burning, etc. It would be entirely inappropriate to use a physiological descriptor (somatic/visceral) to "translate" a descriptor reported by the patient!!! As translators, it is our job to render the "nonsense non-medical term" in the target language appropriately and impartially, not to introduce a clinical descriptor that is nowhere to be found in the source text. Furthermore, these terms are not nonsense; they can be extremely useful to determine the cause of pain and an understanding of their use is an essential part of a good education in semiología.
(FYI, the pain of pericarditis is usually somatic, whereas the pain of myocardial ischemia, for instance, is visceral.)

Yvette Neisser Moreno (asker) Jan 8, 2013:

>Joel Joel, I looked up pericarditis symptoms on a couple of English medical websites, and they use "sharp pain" or "sharp, stabbing pain" to describe the chest pain. For example: http://www.texasheart.org/HIC/Topics/Cond/pericard.cfm

I don't have a medical background. Can you please tell me what you think would be an appropriate medical term to use instead?

Joel Pina Diaz Jan 8, 2013:

Not accept as medical term There is only two types of pain (nociceptivo and neuropático) some others believe in (psicógeno) ...I do not. If you review the two types of dolor nociceptivo (somático and viceral) I definitely think you will come up the perfect term here. Clinically I will use an appropriate term instead of this fancy non sense non medical terms....