compliance (C) /kəmplī″əns/ [L, complere, to complete] , 1. fulfillment by a patient of a caregiver’s prescribed course of treatment. 2. also called pulmonary compliance. (in respiratory physiology) a measure of distensibility of the lung volume produced by a unit pressure change. 3. the quality of yielding to pressure or force without disruption, or an expression of the distensibility of an air- or fluid-filled organ, e.g., the lung or urinary bladder, in terms of volume per unit of pressure.
