El acrónimo

I am in the process of translating a consent form for the glaucoma laser procedures Argon laser trabeculoplasty and selective laser trabeculoplasty.  When we speak of these laser surgeries in English, we often use their acronyms, ALT and SLT, simply for ease of use and flow of the text. We usually introduce the acronym along with their corresponding words when they are first mentioned in the text. For example:

“Indications. The Argon laser trabeculoplasty (ALT) and selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) surgeries are used for patients with open angle glaucoma. The laser is utilized to treat the drainage system of the eye.”

But what happens when this is translated for the Spanish reader?

“Indicaciones.  La trabeculoplastía con láser de árgon y trabeculoplastía selectiva con láser son procedimientos los que se usan para los pacientes con el glaucoma de ángulo abierto. El radioláser se utiliza para tratar el sistema de drenaje del ojo.”

Do I shorten “trabeculoplastía con láser de árgon” to TLA, which is the acronym corresponding to the Spanish words, or do I use the familiar ALT which is how this procedure is known by a U.S. audience?

In my own research of acronym translation, I have seen this situation handled differently. On the website TrustedTranslations.com an article posted by Scott J addresses these different approaches.

First, you can always write the acronym as it corresponds to the text in your target language, but then add in parenthesis something to the effect of “for its acronym in language of origin”.  I did this with a recent translation I did for an MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) in Spanish:

 MTA – Metropolitan Transportation Authority ( la Autoridad Metropolitana de Transporte – en adelante MTA en inglés) A su servicio

Second, world-renowned organizations will have their own translation in each language:

            NATO=OTAN

Third, acronyms related to health and medicine usually have their own default translation. As seen above:

trabeculoplastía selectiva con láser (TSL – en adelante SLT en inglés)

Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida (SIDA – en adelante AIDS en inglés)

Lastly, the article emphasizes that it is always important to do some investigations for a potential acronym in the target language. Especially for job titles, country names, political parties, “some acronyms have a standardized translation and others do not.”

But going back to my ALT/SLT translation from English to Spanish, another important fact to consider is, who is your reading public? For whom are you writing this? In the case of this particular consent form, the reading public includes a small immigrant population of Spanish-speakers living in an English-predominant area. The majority of these people did not have access to medical care in their home country, and if they did it was limited. Therefore for these people, I think the best approach is to write the name of the procedure in Spanish, add the Spanish acronym, but clarify what the English acronym would be, too, so they could recognize it should they come across print ads or informational brochures written in English.

Remembering the audience- knowing who your reader is- is almost as important as knowing the translation itself.

References

Trusted Translations: Translating Acronyms and Abbreviations  http://translation-blog.trustedtranslations.com/translating-acronyms-and-abbreviations-2012-06-07.html\

Purple Heron, Kopački Rit, Slavonia, HR