Which term means unknown cause?

• A. Hemorrhage
• B. Idiopathic
• C. Topical anesthesia
• D. Regional anesthesia

Answer: (B)

Unknown cause is described by the term idiopathic. In medical language, idio- implies personal or peculiar origin, and -pathic relates to disease, so idiopathic means a disease of unknown origin or cause. Clinically, it’s used when, after evaluation, no identifiable cause is found for the condition. For example, idiopathic scoliosis has no determined reason for the spinal curvature. The other terms refer to different concepts: hemorrhage means bleeding, topical anesthesia is numbing applied to a surface, and regional anesthesia numbs a larger region of the body.