Hump Back | Neck Hump, Buffalo Hump, Dowager’s Hump or Kyphosis?

There are a lot of euphemisms used in medicine. I find euphemisms, when it comes to our health, patronizing.

I think my patients can handle the truth, so I don’t intentionally soften my words to ease a diagnosis. 

One very common euphemism is to call a neck hump a buffalo hump. I prefer the term neck hump, but they do mean the same thing; except the hump on an actual Buffalo consists of about 70 Ib of muscle used to move snow! The neck humps on humans – if due to a structural change in the neck – consist of fatty tissue not muscle. So the correct euphemism for neck hump is Buffalo hump, but I just don’t like it!

Join the conversation

or to participate.