conservative treatment

noun

A treatment that does not include any operation or intervention.

Meanings

nounconservative treatment (plural conservative treatments)

plural conservative treatments

  1. medicineA treatment that does not include any operation or intervention.

    Conservative treatment could also include short-arm casting with the fingers and thumb free for 2-6 weeks.

    2007, Thomas E. Hyde, Marianne S. Gengenbach, Conservative Management of Sports Injuries, →ISBN, page 597
    2 more examples

    Operative treatment should be reserved for those patients in whom conservative treatment has failed and who are motivated with regard to sports.

    2000, G. Puddu et al., “Achilles Tendon Injuries”, in The Encyclopaedia of Sports Medicine, →ISBN, page 200

    For the treatment of humeral shaft fractures, conservative treatment still competes with the operative approach to a much greater degree than is the case for fractures of the long bones of the lower extremity.

    2006, J. Franke, “Intramedullary Nailing of Humeral Shaft Fractures”, in Practice of Intramedullary Locked Nails: New Developments in Techniques and Applications, →ISBN, page 179
Cite this entry
APA

conservative treatment. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/conservative%20treatment

MLA

“conservative treatment.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/conservative%20treatment. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “conservative treatment,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/conservative%20treatment.

Source: conservative treatment on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.