List of abbreviations used in medical prescriptions

This is a list of abbreviations used in medical prescriptions and hospital orders (sometimes referred to as sig codes). This list does not include abbreviations for pharmaceuticals (which is a separate article in itself) or drug name suffixes such as CD, CR, ER, XT (See Time release technology > List of abbreviations for those).

Capitalization and the use of periods is a matter of style. In the list, Latin is not capitalized whereas English acronyms are.

Abbreviations which are not recommended by the Joint Commission, an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization which offers accreditation to hospitals and other health care organizations in the United States (not binding on U.S. physicians, but required of organizations who wish accreditation by the Joint Commission) are marked in red. Those abbreviations which are discouraged by other organizations are marked in orange.

Numerical Notation
When expressing a numerical quantity, Roman numerals are commonly used in place of arabic digits so as to avoid confusion. The numbers 1 - 3, (I, II, III) usually written as upper-case Roman numerals, often have the appearance of a capital "T" or a series of capital "T's" with a dot above each "T." They are also sometimes written as lower-case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii).

Currently "Discouraged" Practices

 * Abbreviating names of drugs
 * Using apothecary's units
 * Using trailing zeros or not using a leading zero