Medical/Neurosurgical Glossary
- Q -

Qi – This is the Chinese word for life force.  It is pronounced “chee.”

Quadriceps – The large muscles located on the front of each thigh.

Quadriparesis – The incomplete loss of the use of all four extremities.  It is usually from an injury to the neck.  It implies some residual function, usually strength or sensation.  When the loss is complete it is called quadriplegia.

Quadriplegia – The complete loss of use of all four extremities, usually from an injury to the neck. 

Qualified Injured Worker (QIW) - a person injured on the job who cannot go back to their usual work and must either be given either modified work or retrained for a new job; applies only to the California state system.

Qualified Medical-legal Examination (QME) – This is a report performed by a Qualified Medical Examiner (also called a QME) in a workers’ compensation dispute.  A Qualified Medical Examiner is one who “qualified” to do examinations by passing a state test.  Qualified Medical Examinations include defense QME’s, applicant QME’s and panel QME’s.  An applicant QME is requested either by an applicant attorney (representing a patient) and a defense QME is requested by an insurance company or a defense attorney (representing an insurance company).  A panel QME is requested by an injured worker who picks the evaluator from a list of three doctors supplied by the state (a panel).

Queckenstedt Test (Jugular Sign) – If the compression of both jugular veins causes increased intracranial pressure, there is possible a lateral sinus thrombosis.

If you are aware of any useful spine and neuromusculoskeletal terms which are not included in this list, or if you have suggestions for better definitions,  your help would be greatly appreciated.  Please send me any upgrades and I will update the web site appropriately.  Click here to send a comment.