Definition of Iatrogenic

Iatrogenic: Due to the action of a physician or a therapy the doctor prescibed. An iatrogenic disease may be inadvertently caused by a physician or surgeon or by a medical or surgical treatment or a diagnostic procedure. Puerperal fever (childbirth fever) was an iatrogenic infection; it was carried from one woman to another by the doctor before the days of antisepsis. If in the course of a procedure, an artery is nicked and bleeds, that is an iatrogenic accident.

The word "iatrogenic" comes from the Greek roots "iatros" meaning "the healer or physician" + "gennan" meaning "as a product of" = due to the doctor.

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