1. An aisle surrounding the end of the choir or altar of a church: The ambulatories of places of worship are reserved for the clergy and the organized group of singers.
2. The covered walk of a cloister with a wall on one side and a colonnade open to a quadrangle on the other.The visitors were walking around in the ambulatory of the historical monastery.

1. Pertaining to, or capable of walking: The plan for the exploration of the city was for those ambulatory tourists who liked to stroll from one part to another one.
2. Adapted for walking, as the limbs of many animals: Some sea creatures are ambulatory, moving from place to place seeking better feeding grounds.
3. Moving around or from place to place; not stationary: The physiotherapist was helping the patients become more ambulatory in their goal to become more independent.
4. Not confined to bed; able or strong enough to walk: Glenda was an ambulatory patient who could go home instead of having to stay in a hospital bed.

An ambulatory health service is for people who are not required to be hospitalized because they are not physically handicapped and so they are able to proceed on foot in a normal way.

5. In law, not fixed; alterable or revocable: Mark left an ambulatory will for his daughter in case something were to happen to her and she couldn't be available to benefit from it. © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

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The administration of anesthesia, which makes the patient insensitive to pain, when he or she is admitted and discharged on the same day of a minor surgical procedure: When Mariam fell and had a minor wound on her arm, she had ambulatory anesthesia during the medical treatment and so she was able to walk to her car with her husband so he could drive her home.

Aimless wandering or moving around: The ambulatory automatism of a person includes the performance of mechanical acts without any conscious awareness of doing such movements.

During ambulatory automatisms, epileptic patients walk around and are able to carry out some functions without being clearly conscious of either themselves or their surroundings.

Monitoring of a patient that allows the blood pressure to be recorded at regular intervals under normal living and working conditions and is useful to determine to what degree a patient's blood pressure falls at night compared to daytime values: Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring consists of prolonged blood pressure readings that are made while a patient does normal daily activities that will allow quantitative analyses of high blood pressure loads over different times and which can help distinguish between types of hypertensions; as well as, to determine the effectiveness of antihypertensive therapies.

A reference to health services that are provided on an outpatient basis: Those who visit a hospital, or another healthcare facility, and then go back home after treatment on the same day, are identified as being ambulatory care patients.

An essential tool in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with cardiac arrhythmias: The ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring is used to help determine whether someone has an otherwise undetected heart disease; such as, an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia), or inadequate blood flow through the heart.

Specifically, ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring can detect abnormal electrical activity in the heart which may occur randomly or only under certain circumstances; such as, during sleep or periods of physical activity or stress, which may or may not be picked up by standard, short-term electrocardiography performed in a doctor's office.

The main complaint that people have with ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring is that the monitor may be cumbersome and interfere with certain activities; especially, sleeping; however, bathing and showering are not allowed during the monitoring period.

The signals of the ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring are recorded on a cassette tape that runs slowly for a 24 hour recording, then the tape is quickly analyzed by a machine which stops when it detects any abnormalities in the recording.

A form of any of several psychotic disorders characterized by distortions of reality, usually of the simple but also additional symptoms of mood disorders: The person so afflicted with ambulatory schizophrenia usually manages for the most part to avoid being institutionalized.

The medical treatment of an injury or other physical disorder by direct physical actions without the patient being admitted to a hospital: Ambulatory surgery is usually performed in the outpatient section of a medical center or in a physician's office and an overnight stay is not necessary; in other words, he or she can walk out and go home after the doctor's treatment.

Medical facilities that are designed and equipped to handle surgery, pain management, and specific diagnostic procedures which do not require overnight hospitalization: Patients who are in relatively good health may choose to receive treatments at ambulatory surgery centers instead of having to stay overnight in a room and they will be treated by health professionals just as they would in a conventional surgery department.