What does "well-developed" mean in a doctor's description of a patient?

[CanBeGrumpy]

I recently had an outpatient procedure, and in the report, under the pre-op history and physical, there is a "review of systems". Under "general", it says "This is a well-developed female in no distress". Does "well-developed" simply mean "healthy"? I find the terminology kind of funny! And, I wear a size 36B bra, so unless the doctor is easily impressed, then that is not what he is talking about! (joking, of course, I know a doctor would not comment on that in a report!)

 

[Christine]

http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2007/0500/p60.html

The phrase “well-nourished, well-developed” has reared its generically bland head all over physicians' medical documentation, from podiatrists all the way up to neurologists. What does this phrase really mean? The logical assumption is that it means “adequately fed and grown.” What other meaning can there be? Plenty, it turns out.

In my review of medical documents, I see this confusing phrase abbreviated almost always as WNWD. For example, “A WNWD patient presents to discuss obesity.” In this case, the physician seems to use WNWD to describe a patient who is approaching obesity; however, the term “overweight” would have been more helpful.

Other physicians use WNWD to describe patients with body mass indices approaching emaciation, as in “WNWD with BMI of 16.” In this case, if the person was just thin, the physician should have stated that fact. Or if the person appeared anorexic or cachectic, why didn't the physician just say so?

Still other physicians use WNWD to describe the patient who is neither excessively thin nor heavy; however, even for these patients, more descriptive terms or phrases would be more helpful.

 

[Deb in IA]

Normal-sized, or as described above, "adequately fed and grown".
(It is not a comment on your bra size )

 

[dmdelight]

must admit, i've never come across this before either.

 

[StephMK]

I recently had an outpatient procedure, and in the report, under the pre-op history and physical, there is a "review of systems". Under "general", it says "This is a well-developed female in no distress". Does "well-developed" simply mean "healthy"? I find the terminology kind of funny! And, I wear a size 36B bra, so unless the doctor is easily impressed, then that is not what he is talking about! (joking, of course, I know a doctor would not comment on that in a report!)

OMG, that made me Glad you are healthy!

 

[ez]

I remembered seeing that somewhere before and I found this link for you. Used to describe none other than Marilyn Monroe http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/celebrity/marilyn_monroe/autopsy.html

 

[CanBeGrumpy]

Thanks for all of the info! I did try a Google search, but came up empty. I'm glad you guys have better Googling skills than I do! Good to know I am considered "well-fed"!

And wow, that autopsy report on Marilyn Monroe! I never knew you could find stuff like that online! Very interesting!

 

[Sadie22]

That is a common medical term used by the average physician. I transcribe it often in the course of my work.