Human health and medicine

Topical anesthesia

Topical anesthesia is the production of surface numbness by applying a local anesthetic drug to intact skin or a mucous membrane, so minor procedures like venipuncture hurt less.

Topical chemotherapy

Topical chemotherapy is the application of cytotoxic drugs such as 5-fluorouracil directly onto a tumor surface, treating actinic keratoses and superficial skin cancers while sparing the body.

Topical corticosteroid therapy

Topical corticosteroid therapy is the application of corticosteroid medications to the skin to treat dermatoses such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and lichen planus, with agents ranging from hydrocortisone to superpotent clobetasol.

Topical medication

Topical medication: drugs applied to the skin or mucosa for local action, distinct from transdermal patches that deliver drugs systemically; governed by stratum corneum barrier, 500 Da cutoff, Fick's law diffusion.

Topical steroid

Topical steroid (topical corticosteroid): anti-inflammatory skin medicine, first used as hydrocortisone in 1952, sold in seven potency classes from hydrocortisone to clobetasol propionate, dosed in fingertip units, with skin atrophy and adrenal suppression as main risks of misuse.

Topical steroid withdrawal

Topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), or red skin syndrome, is burning, itching, and erythema after stopping medium- to high-potency topical corticosteroids used for months; most common in adult women, with proposed NAD+ excess mechanism and emerging diagnostic criteria.

Topical treatment of atopic dermatitis

Topical treatment of atopic dermatitis is the use of emollients, topical corticosteroids, calcineurin inhibitors, and newer creams applied to the skin to control inflammation and itching.

Topiramate

Topiramate (Topamax) is a sulfamate-derived broad-spectrum antiepileptic drug approved for partial-onset and generalized tonic-clonic seizures, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and migraine prevention, acting via sodium channel, GABA-A, AMPA/kainate, and carbonic anhydrase mechanisms.

Topsalysin

Topsalysin (PRX302, PORxin 302) is an experimental targeted prodrug injected into the prostate and activated by PSA to kill prostate cells, developed by Sophiris Bio for BPH symptoms.

TORDIA trial

TORDIA (Treatment of SSRI-Resistant Depression in Adolescents), NIMH-funded six-site RCT, 334 teens aged 12-18, 2000-2006; CBT plus antidepressant switch beat medication switch alone (54.8% vs 40.5% response); venlafaxine no better than a second SSRI.

Toremifene

Toremifene (Fareston) is a chlorinated tamoxifen analogue SERM approved in 1997 for ER-positive or unknown metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women; trials show efficacy equivalent to tamoxifen with a QT-prolongation boxed warning.

Toriello-Carey syndrome

Toriello-Carey syndrome (OMIM 217980, ORPHA 3338), also called corpus callosum agenesis-blepharophimosis-Robin sequence syndrome, is a rare multiple congenital anomaly disorder with callosal agenesis, Pierre Robin sequence, heart defects, and hypotonia; about 20% of cases are chromosomal.

Toripalimab

Toripalimab (Loqtorzi, Tuoyi, 拓益) is a humanized anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, China's first domestic PD-1 drug (2018), FDA-approved in 2023 for nasopharyngeal carcinoma based on the JUPITER-02 trial.

Torpedo Maculopathy

Torpedo maculopathy (TM), or solitary hypopigmented nevus of the RPE, is a rare congenital torpedo-shaped retinal pigment epithelium lesion temporal to the fovea, usually unilateral and asymptomatic, first described by Roseman and Gass in 1992.

Torsades de pointes

Torsades de pointes (TdP), French for "twisting of the points," is polymorphic ventricular tachycardia with undulating QRS axis occurring in congenital or drug-induced long QT syndrome; initiated by early afterdepolarizations, treated with unsynchronized shock and IV magnesium.

Torsemide

Torsemide (torasemide), a loop diuretic approved in the US in 1993, inhibits Na+/K+/2Cl− in the loop of Henle to treat edema from heart failure, renal, or hepatic disease and hypertension; roughly twice as potent as furosemide, but TRANSFORM-HF showed no outcome difference.

Torsion of spleen

Torsion of spleen (splenic torsion), twisting of the spleen on its vascular pedicle, usually in a wandering spleen; rare (about 500 cases), presenting with abdominal pain and mass, diagnosed by CT whirl sign, treated by splenopexy or splenectomy.

Torsional nystagmus

Torsional (rotary) nystagmus: involuntary twisting eye movements about the line of sight, usually conjugate. Caused by vertical semicircular canal dysfunction; common causes are infarction and multiple sclerosis, with high specificity for central lesions.

Torticollis

Torticollis, or wry neck, is a condition in which neck muscles cause the head to tilt or rotate. Most common form is congenital muscular torticollis from sternocleidomastoid shortening, treated with early physical therapy, botulinum toxin, or surgery.

Torus palatinus

Torus palatinus, or palatal torus, is a benign bony exostosis on the midline hard palate, present in roughly 20% of US adults and 0.4–61.7% across populations, more often in females, usually needing no treatment.

Oct 20, 2026

Tosatoxumab

Tosatoxumab (AR-301, KBSA301, Salvecin) is a fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibody neutralizing Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin, developed by Aridis Pharmaceuticals as an antibiotic adjunct for S. aureus ventilator-associated pneumonia; its first Phase 3 missed the primary endpoint but showed benefit in patients over 65.

Tositumomab

Tositumomab (Bexxar therapeutic regimen) is a murine IgG2a anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody paired with iodine I 131 tositumomab for radioimmunotherapy of CD20-positive follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; FDA-approved 2003, discontinued 2014.

TOSS trial

TOSS (Transtibial Osseointegration Study, NCT06636136) is a Walter Reed FDA pivotal trial testing off-label OPRA osseointegrated implants in 30 transtibial amputees, ages 22-65, with two-stage surgery and 60-month follow-up.

Total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy

Total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (TAH-BSO) is an open surgical procedure removing the uterus, cervix, both ovaries, and both fallopian tubes, usually for fibroids or cancer.

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC, TAPVR): congenital defect where all pulmonary veins drain to the right heart instead of the left atrium; supracardiac, cardiac, infracardiac, mixed types; needs infant surgery; survival ~85% at 20 years.

Total body irradiation

Total body irradiation (TBI) is a radiotherapy technique delivering radiation to the entire body, used mainly to condition patients before stem cell transplantation for blood cancers like leukemia.

Total colectomy

Total colectomy is an operation that removes the entire colon from cecum to sigmoid, leaving the rectum in place, performed electively for inflammatory bowel disease or emergently for toxic megacolon.

Total Communication Methods

Total Communication (TC) is a deaf education philosophy using all communication modes: speech, sign, fingerspelling, gesture, lipreading, amplification. Developed by Roy Holcomb in the 1960s, it became dominant but is criticized for incomplete language access.

Total disc replacement

Total disc replacement, also called disc arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure that replaces a damaged spinal disc with an artificial implant that preserves motion, an alternative to spinal fusion.