Human health and medicine

Needle fasciotomy

Needle fasciotomy, also called needle aponeurotomy or percutaneous needle fasciotomy, is a minimally invasive hand procedure that divides Dupuytren's contracture cords with a hypodermic needle under local anesthesia.

Needle-free injection

Needle-free injection is a drug delivery method that uses a high-velocity fluid jet instead of a needle, delivering vaccines and medications in about a tenth of a second.

Nefopam

Nefopam (Acupan, Nefalgic) is a centrally acting, non-opioid, non-NSAID analgesic, a diphenhydramine-derived benzoxazocine inhibiting serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine reuptake, used in Europe for acute postoperative pain with a 13 mg/24 h morphine-sparing effect; not available in the US.

Negative affectivity

Negative affectivity, also called negative emotionality or neuroticism, is the trait tendency to experience distressing emotions like anxiety, anger, and depression; an ICD-11 personality trait domain (6D11.0) and DSM-5 AMPD domain.

Negative-calorie food

Negative-calorie food: claimed foods like celery, lettuce, and grapefruit that supposedly burn more calories in digestion than they provide. No evidence supports the claim; digestion costs 5–30% of food energy, and low energy density is the real benefit.

Negative-Pressure Ventilators

Negative-pressure ventilators (iron lungs, cuirass ventilators, Exovent) assist breathing by lowering pressure around the chest; mainstay of polio care until 1950s, now used for neuromuscular disorders and kyphoscoliosis.

Negative-pressure wound therapy

Negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT), also called vacuum-assisted closure, is a wound treatment using a sealed dressing connected to a vacuum pump. Pioneered by Argenta and Morykwas in the 1990s; best evidence supports incisional use to reduce surgical site infections.

Negativism

Negativism: a psychopathological sign of apparently motiveless resistance to instructions or examination, first described by Kahlbaum in 1874 as motor negativism in catatonia; also seen in autism, intellectual disability, and brain injury.

Neglected tropical diseases

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs): WHO group of 21 poverty-associated tropical conditions such as dracunculiasis, leprosy, trachoma, and rabies; about 1 billion affected, 1.4 billion needing interventions, 58 countries with at least one elimination by end 2025.

Nei Wai Shang Bian Huo Lun

内外伤辨惑论 (Nei wai shang bian huo lun), a 1231–1247 three-juan treatise by Jin physician Li Gao (Li Dongyuan), distinguishing internal injury of the spleen and stomach from external contraction and introducing Buzhong Yiqi Tang.

Neighborhood Characteristics

Neighborhood characteristics are the demographic, social, built-environment, and economic features of residential areas, also called neighborhood effects or neighborhood disadvantage, studied for their influence on residents' health and well-being.

Neil Harbisson

Neil Harbisson is a British-born artist and cyborg activist born with achromatopsia. His antenna implant converts light frequencies into sound, enabling him to hear colors beyond the human spectrum.

Neil J. Elgee

Neil J. Elgee (1926–2020) was an American physician who practiced internal medicine and endocrinology, taught at the University of Washington, and founded the Ernest Becker Foundation in 1993.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonococcus), Gram-negative diplococcus causing gonorrhoea; discovered by Albert Neisser 1879; obligate human pathogen with 82.4 million 2020 infections, resistance to all antibiotic classes, and no licensed vaccine.

Nelarabine

Nelarabine (Arranon, Atriance) is a purine nucleoside analog prodrug of ara-G for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma, converted by adenosine deaminase; FDA-approved 2005 for relapsed/refractory disease and 2023 for frontline use.

Nelson syndrome

Nelson syndrome: growth of an ACTH-secreting pituitary corticotroph tumor after bilateral adrenalectomy for Cushing's disease, also called post-adrenalectomy syndrome; triad of hyperpigmentation, high ACTH, expanding sellar mass; about 26% prevalence; surgery first-line.

NEMO deleted exon 5 autoinflammatory syndrome

NEMO-NDAS (NDAS) is a rare X-linked autoinflammatory disease from IKBKG splice variants skipping exon 5 of NEMO, causing fever, panniculitis, hepatosplenomegaly, and interferon signatures, distinct from NEMO immunodeficiency.

Nemolizumab

Nemolizumab (Nemluvio, nemolizumab-ilto, code CIM331) is a humanized anti-IL-31 receptor alpha monoclonal antibody approved by FDA (2024) and EMA (2025) for prurigo nodularis and later atopic dermatitis, dosed subcutaneously every 4 weeks.

Nemonoxacin

Nemonoxacin (TG-873870, Taigexyn) is a non-fluorinated C-8 methoxy quinolone antibiotic from TaiGen Biotechnology for community-acquired pneumonia, non-inferior to levofloxacin in phase II/III trials and unusually weak against M. tuberculosis.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) is chemotherapy and radiotherapy given before surgery, used mainly for locally advanced rectal and esophageal cancer; in rectal cancer it cut five-year local relapse from 13% to 6%.

Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy

Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy is hormone-blocking drug treatment, usually an aromatase inhibitor, given for 4 to 8 months before breast surgery to shrink ER-positive tumors and allow breast-conserving surgery.

Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy

Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy is the administration of hormone-blocking drugs before definitive local treatment, chiefly surgery or radiotherapy, to shrink hormone-sensitive tumors, most often prostate cancer and breast cancer.

Neoadjuvant immunotherapy

Neoadjuvant immunotherapy is the delivery of immune checkpoint inhibitors before surgical removal of a tumor, now a standard of care proven superior to adjuvant immunotherapy in several cancers.

Neoadjuvant radiotherapy

Neoadjuvant radiotherapy is radiation therapy given before surgical removal of a tumor, standard in rectal cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, and esophageal cancer, where it lowers local recurrence.

Neoadjuvant Therapy

Neoadjuvant therapy: cancer treatment (chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy) given before the main treatment, usually surgery, to shrink tumors; compared with adjuvant (post-surgery) therapy across breast, esophageal, rectal, pancreatic, and gastric cancers.

NeoAKISTOP study

NeoAKISTOP (NeoAKI STOP, NCT05851222) is a single-center retrospective observational study at Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda, Milan, using big data and machine learning to predict neonatal AKI in NICU infants exposed to nephrotoxic drugs; planned enrollment 4,200, status not yet recruiting.

Neobladder reconstruction

Neobladder reconstruction is a urinary diversion operation that builds a new intestinal reservoir connected to the urethra, most often from terminal ileum, so patients can urinate normally after radical cystectomy.

Neocortex

Neocortex (isocortex): the six-layered outer cerebral cortex found only in mammals, part of the dorsal pallium, up to about 80% of the human brain, expanded in human prefrontal and language areas.

NeoMassage trial

NeoMassage (NCT06273202) is a randomized trial at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, testing whether infant massage changes quadriceps muscle thickness and trophism on ultrasound in stable preterm infants aged 28 to 35 weeks.