Translation of specialized medical texts, illustrated with the English-German language pair

Because of its long documented history, specialized medical language remains riddled with Greek and Latin terms. Knowing the meanings of the various components of medical terminology will help the translator enter into the medical field, which may be new to him. In practice, use of these technical terms depends largely on the type of text. Furthermore, an alternate general term usually exists in German, while only one term exists in English. This creates an additional problem for translators: deciding on the best way to record terms in a terminology system so they may be used in translation.