Human health and medicine

Nephrometry

Nephrometry, or nephrometry score, is a set of urology scoring systems that rate kidney tumor complexity on CT imaging, led by the R.E.N.A.L. and PADUA scores from 2009.

Nephron: the kidney's microscopic functional unit, comprising glomerulus, Bowman capsule, proximal tubule, loop of Henle, and distal tubule; performs filtration, reabsorption, and secretion; nephron number links to hypertension and CKD risk.

Nephron-sparing surgery

Nephron-sparing surgery is a family of operations for kidney tumors, usually partial nephrectomy, that removes the tumor while preserving the rest of the kidney; it is the standard of care for localized T1 renal tumors.

Nephronophthisis

Nephronophthisis (NPHP) is an autosomal recessive renal ciliopathy and the most common genetic cause of childhood ESRD, with over 20 genes, NPHP1 deletions in ~20% of cases, and no treatment beyond transplant.

Nephroptosis

Nephroptosis (floating kidney, wandering kidney, ren mobilis): abnormal descent of the kidney, 5 cm or two vertebral bodies, on standing. Common in women, rarely symptomatic; nephropexy surgery rose after 1881, faded by the 1930s, revived laparoscopically since 1993.

Nephroscopy

Nephroscopy is the endoscopic examination of the kidney's interior via a tract through the flank, serving as the visual and working component of percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

Nephrostomy

Nephrostomy, or percutaneous nephrostomy, is a urology and interventional radiology procedure that drains an obstructed kidney through a tube placed through the skin, first reported by Willard Goodwin in 1955.

Nephrotic syndrome

Nephrotic syndrome, also called idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in children, is heavy proteinuria with hypoalbuminemia, edema, and hyperlipidemia from glomerular disease; minimal change disease predominates in children, 85–90% respond to steroids, and KDIGO 2025 guides treatment.

Nephrotomy

Nephrotomy: surgical incision into any part of the kidney (MeSH D000074643), historically for renal stones; anatrophic nephrotomy uses Brödel's avascular plane and remains in limited open use.

Nephroureterectomy

Nephroureterectomy, also known as radical nephroureterectomy, is the en bloc removal of the kidney, entire ureter, and bladder cuff, performed mainly for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma.

Nephrovir study

Nephrovir (NCT00577525) was a French population-based case-control study and cohort led by Georges Deschênes testing herpesvirus infection, especially EBV, at onset of childhood idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, with five-year outcome and NEPHROVIR-2/3 follow-ups.

Oct 20, 2026

Neramexane

Neramexane (MRZ 2/579), a Merz Pharmaceuticals amino-alkyl-cyclohexane drug, is an uncompetitive NMDA receptor channel blocker and alpha9alpha10 nicotinic antagonist trialed for tinnitus, Alzheimer's disease, pain, and addiction, without approval.

Nerandomilast tablets

Nerandomilast (Jascayd, BI 1015550) tablets: oral preferential PDE4B inhibitor by Boehringer Ingelheim, FDA-approved October 2025 for IPF and December 2025 for progressive pulmonary fibrosis; slows FVC decline in FIBRONEER trials.

Neratinib

Neratinib (Nerlynx) is an oral irreversible pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor of HER1, HER2, and HER4, FDA-approved in 2017 for extended adjuvant therapy of early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer after trastuzumab and, with capecitabine, for metastatic disease; diarrhea is its main toxicity.

Oct 20, 2026

Nerelimomab

Nerelimomab (CDP571, Humicade, BAY 103356) is a humanized anti-TNF-alpha IgG4 monoclonal antibody developed by Celltech; it showed modest short-term benefit in Crohn's disease but failed steroid-sparing and maintenance endpoints and was never approved.

Neridronic acid

Neridronic acid (neridronate, Nerixia), a third-generation aminohexane bisphosphonate (C6H17NO7P2), given IV or IM; licensed in Italy for osteogenesis imperfecta, Paget's disease, and CRPS-I.

Nerinetide

Nerinetide (NA-1, Tat-NR2B9c), a 20-amino-acid PSD-95 inhibitor neuroprotectant peptide for acute ischemic stroke; neutral in phase 3 ESCAPE-NA1, degraded by alteplase-generated plasmin, with benefit signals in alteplase-free subgroups.

Nerve ablation

Nerve ablation is a procedure that destroys nerve tissue with heat or chemicals to interrupt pain. It is used to target chronic joint and back pain.

Nerve block

Nerve block: injection of medication near a nerve or nerve group for pain relief, diagnosis, or surgical anesthesia. Also regional anesthesia; first performed by Halsted with cocaine in 1884; includes epidural, Bier, and peripheral blocks.

Nerve compression syndrome

Nerve compression syndrome, or entrapment neuropathy, is pressure on a peripheral nerve at anatomical tunnels, causing pain, numbness, and weakness. Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common type; cubital tunnel is second.

Nerve conduction study

Nerve conduction study (NCS), also called nerve conduction velocity test, is an electrodiagnostic test stimulating peripheral nerves to measure latency, amplitude, and conduction velocity, used with EMG to diagnose neuropathy and compression syndromes like carpal tunnel.

Nerve conduction velocity

Nerve conduction velocity (NCV), also called a nerve conduction study (NCS), measures how fast electrical signals travel along peripheral nerves using surface electrodes. Covers Helmholtz's 1870 measurement, temperature and age effects, diagnostic thresholds, and AANEM standards.

Nerve crush

Nerve crush is a surgical technique that deliberately compresses a peripheral nerve to interrupt axons while preserving the connective tissue sheaths, producing a standardized axonotmesis used to study nerve regeneration.

Nerve Expansion

Nerve expansion (nerve lengthening, nerve stretching): MeSH-defined procedures that gradually elongate nerves to repair nerve tissue; experimental tissue-expander and fixator methods, not yet standard treatment.

Nerve field stimulation

Nerve field stimulation (NFS), usually called peripheral nerve field stimulation (PNFS), is a neuromodulation technique for chronic pain in which leads are implanted in the painful area itself.

Nerve grafting

Nerve grafting is a plastic and reconstructive surgery technique that bridges gaps in injured peripheral nerves with donor nerve segments, most often the patient's own sural nerve, so regenerating axons can cross the defect.

Nerve growth factor

Nerve growth factor (NGF), the first discovered neurotrophin, found by Levi-Montalcini and Hamburger in the 1950s; signals via TrkA and p75NTR; basis for cenegermin (neurotrophic keratitis) and anti-NGF pain drugs.

NERVE study

NERVE study (NCT07259382), Neuro-Inflammation in Extremity Trauma: Risk Verification in Elbow Trauma, a Université de Montréal prospective cohort of 60 elbow fracture patients measuring neuro-inflammation biomarkers against pain, opioid use, and function.

Nerve transfer

A nerve transfer, also called nerve transfers, is surgery that connects a functioning donor nerve to an injured nerve, restoring motor function or protective sensation.