here are my thoughts on this... - nycmt

Do not expand BPH unless you are sure - MT in CA

Benign prostatic hypertrophy is - sm

benign prostatic hypertrophy and hyperplasia - mean 2 different things

Ok, please tell me where to find this - sm

The UMLS has replaced benign prostatic hypertrophy with benign prostatic hyperplasia keeping - hypertrophy as a synonym – Annie

This is my first post on this subject (I am not part of this string), but since I was curious myself, I did do some research and here is what I found. 

Maybe the following boring explanation will help clear things up a bit. 

It has to do with ICD codes and data mining, and trying to make everything uniform.  So when anyone searches for a particular word/phrase, they do not have to search multiple possible combinations.  One search will produce every known occurrence. 

The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS^®) Knowledge Sources are produced and distributed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The purpose of NLM's Unified Medical Language System (UMLS^®) is to facilitate the development of computer systems that behave as if they "understand" the meaning of the language of biomedicine and health.  To that end, NLM produces and distributes the UMLS Knowledge Sources (databases) and associated software tools (programs) for use by system developers in building or enhancing electronic information systems that create, process, retrieve, integrate, and/or aggregate biomedical and health data and information, as well as in informatics research.

The National Library of Medicine updated the UMLS every year. 

They do things such as (and these are direct examples given in the reference):

1.  Merge “diabetic acidosis” and “diabetic ketosis” to form “diabetic ketoacidosis.”

2.  Add abbreviation “HIV protease inhibitor” to “human immunodeficiency virus protease inhibitor.”

3.  Replace BPH “benign prostatic hypertrophy” with “benign prostatic hyperplasia.” They replaced BPH “benign prostatic hypertrophy” with “benign prostatic hyperplasia,” making the older term a synonym of the newer term.  

In other words, they are the ones who make medical terminology “official” and not some doctor who decides to combine two words because it is easier for him to say. 

Hope this answered your question.

By the way, I would include links to my references but they are .pdf files and for some reason, I cannot copy the link at the top.  One is listed as “secured.”  They only give what looks like an IP address, so maybe that has something to do with not being able to copy the link.  Sorry.  One is 10.1.1.18.6253[1].pdf, but when I type that in directly, it gives me an error.  I have to link to it by going through a couple other links on a website.  I think I just stumbled on there, and it is way too complicated to try to explain quickly, but if you would like directions, feel free to Email me.  

Type what the MD says - MTINND

That wasn't her question, she asked what the - expansion of BP was. NM