Episode 一词在医学中用得相当频繁。但它在一般字典上的释义却是：产①（文艺作品中的）一段情节；（几部曲中的）一部曲，插曲；②（一系列事件中的）一个事件。虽然，这些词义都与医学没有什么联系。考察episode 在医学文章中的用法，可以确定它的基本词义是attack, onset(发作)。但在翻译成汉语时，则可能有多种表达法。现归纳如下：

一、在心脏病、神经病、癫痫等阵发性疾病中，常译为"发作"
1、Although, by definition, no patient presented an acute episode of collapse, three patients had a sudden acute exacerbation of symptoms during the course of their illness. 根据定义，虽然没有一个病人出现虚脱急性发作，但有三人在生病期间，症状突然急性恶化。
2、The episodes of bigeminy and ventricular tachycardia were sorted in descending order so that 10 longest episodes were always reviewed. 室性二联律和室性心动过速发作以递降顺序分类，所以总是要观察十次最长的发作。

二、译成"发病"、"发生"、"复发"
1、Episodes of low cardiac output which were accompanied by significant increases in PAP/AOP ratio occurred in 20 patients and were managed by alteration and/or administration of pulmonary vasodilators.
在二十个患有低心输出血量发病的患者中，伴有肺动脉和主动脉压比率明显增加，其处理方法是改善通气和、或给以肺血管扩张剂。
2、The other two patients died of other serious concurrent illness after showing sings of recovering their embolic episode.其余两个病人在栓塞发生后的恢复期，由于其他严重并发展发症而死亡。

三、与数词连用，常译成"次""发作次"
1、About five episodes of nausea and vomiting were associated with this pain. 随疼痛出现了大约五次恶心和呕吐。
2、We have summarized our follow-up information on patients with variant angina. We observed five episodes of cardiac arrest in a total of 23 patients with proven coronary spasm. 我们已总结了随访变异性心绞痛病人的资料。在总共23例经证明为冠脉经痉挛病人中，我们观察到五次心跳骤停。

四、有时可省略不译
1、Did he come out of this episode of unconsciousness? 他苏醒过来了吗？
2、However, in cases that had episodes of increased PAP/AOP ratio, the mean duration of function was increased to five days, and this was almost certainl related to the use of continuous tolazoline infusion through the catheter. 然而，在患有增加肺动脉压和主动脉压比率的病例中，平均效用时间增加到五天，这几乎肯定与通过导管继续输入抗肾上腺素有关。

五、有时还可译成"现象"、"情况"
However, in our experience some patients, in whom a high pulmonary vascular resistance was successfully lowered by the above measures, have had episodes of increased pulmonary vascular resistance post-operatively accompanied by clinical deterioration, which in some cases was extremely rapid. 然而，根据我们的经验，通过上述措施，某些病人的肺血管阻力成功地降低了，但术后由于临床恶化并在某些病例中发展很快，所以仍有肺血管阻力增高的现象。