sequela
nounUK /sɪˈkwiːlə/ · US /sɪˈkwɛlə/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin sequēla (“aftermath, sequel; consequence, result”), from sequor (“to follow; to come or go after, pursue”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”)) + -ēla (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs). Doublet of sequel. The plural form is a learned borrowing from Latin sequēlae.
1
Medicine, Sciences Chiefly in the plural: a condition or disease which follows chronologically after an earlier one, being either partly or wholly caused by it, or made possible by it.
- Complications: haematoma formation is a dangerous sequela of this operation, and careful drainage with polythene tubing was carried out.1970, J[ames] G[raham] Ballard, “Princess Margaret’s Face Lift”, in The Atrocity Exhibition, revised edition, London: Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2001, →ISBN, page 178:
- ‘Ay, ay,’ said Stephen testily, ‘it is showy enough to look at, no doubt, but these are only the superficial sequelae. There is no essential lesion.’1973, Patrick O’Brian, chapter 4, in H.M.S. Surprise, London: HarperCollinsPublishers for The Book People, →ISBN, page 69:
1 more example
- Although both acute PID and STIs may remain asymptomatic, some of their shared long-term sequelae are tubal factor infertility (TFI), salpingitis, and adhesions and scarring of the fallopian tubes, ovaries, and surrounding peritoneal tissue. These sequelae have been further identified as factors potentially associated with EOC risk.2023 December 11, Elizaveta Skarga, Heljä-Marja Surcel, Rudolf Kaaks, Tim Waterboer, Renée T Fortner, “Sexually Transmitted Infections and Risk of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Results From the Finnish Maternity Cohort”, in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, volume 228, number 11, →DOI, pages 1621–1629:
2
Broadly, Formal That which follows; a consequence, an effect.
- Initially he dosed himself [with opium] to quell neuralgia associated with 'gout' and nervous shooting pains in the limb and head, unable to bear the agonies these complaints produced on what Humphry Davy would call his 'excessive sensibility'. Self-dosing brought emotional and physical sequelae of its own.2003, Roy Porter, “Dependent Bodies”, in Flesh in the Age of Reason, London: Allen Lane, Penguin Group, →ISBN, part IV (The Science of Man for a New Society), page 407:
- Related terms
- sequel, sequence, comorbidity, complication