Scientific communication (XXIII). Medical language (1): The use and abuse of abbreviations and acronyms in the medical language and in Pediatrics

[EN]: Abbreviations (abbreviations, acronyms and symbols) are widely used in all scientific fields, especially in health sciences, usually used as a resource to gain time and save space. However, they can cause communication problems between professionals from different levels of care and may incur misunderstandings that can lead to serious consequences, especially in drug prescriptions in childhood. This article revises the rules that define their construction and use, describes problems of their use in scientific communication, proposes solutions to avoid acronyms and details some search engines about acronyms on the internet.[EN]: Abbreviations (abbreviations, acronyms and symbols) are widely used in all scientific fields, especially in health sciences, usually used as a resource to gain time and save space. However, they can cause communication problems between professionals from different levels of care and may incur misunderstandings that can lead to serious consequences, especially in drug prescriptions in childhood. This article revises the rules that define their construction and use, describes problems of their use in scientific communication, proposes solutions to avoid acronyms and details some search engines about acronyms on the internet.Peer Reviewe