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Eponyms are common in medicine, and neurology is not an exception. Most neurological eponyms originate from the names of those who first described a disease or pathological condition, as well as from the names of characters from the literature and mythical or biblical heroes. The article describes en block both widespread and nowadays seldom used or even forgotten neurological eponyms derived from literature and visual art.
Eponym (epó-nim) [Greek eponymos, named after] The name of a disease, structure, operation, or procedure, derived from the name of the person who discovered or described it first. Argot (äŕgõ) [French origin "in thieves' jargon"] The specialized vocabulary and idioms of those in the same work. Eponyms are commonly used in orthopaedics. Yet the individual's name and history often remain obscure or unknown to the user. The recognition and appropriate use of the eponymic terms become more difficult as the terminology falls into disuse. It is hoped that this report will serve as a reference and a resource and will preserve orthopaedic history.
Numerous ophthalmic eponyms are associated with the Mayo Clinic. Some of the terms, such as Hollenhorst plaque and Kearns-Sayre syndrome, are well known, whereas others are relatively cryptic or parochial. Although eponyms have their detractors, the designations will likely appear in the medical lexicon for many years to come.
This study was performed to investigate the value of eponyms of fractures amongst orthopaedic/casualty trainees. Our results show eponyms are not favoured.
Numerous ophthalmic eponyms are associated with the Mayo Clinic. Some of the terms, such as "Hollenhorst plaque" and "Kearns-Sayre syndrome," are well known, whereas others are relatively obscure. Although eponyms have their detractors, the designations likely will appear in the medical lexicon for many more years.
Man's quest for recognition has not escaped the physician, whose contributions to medicine perpetuate his name in print. It is a final grasp for professional immortality, which for men like Imhotep and Hippocrates, has prevailed for millennia. This fervor was particularly evident in the latter 19th century, which created a flurry of eponyms, often two or more physicians publishing the same clinical observation. This article reviews the eponym epidemic as it relates to lumbar radiculopathy.
Eponyms are frequently used in the surgery in homage to remarkable surgeons, specially creators of new surgical techniques and instruments. Sometimes, however, the right person is not revered or the name persists, but the author's technique has been changed over time and the original procedure is lost. Eponyms of the 10 most famous procedures in esophageal surgery are revisited. Names like Lortat-Jacob, Toupet, Dor, Heller, Nissen, Ivor Lewis, Collis, Merendino, Hill, and Belsey, are reviewed, analyzing the man behind the name, the original technique and its modifications.
To understand eponymous verb phrases such as "do a John Travolta," readers cannot merely select a sense out of a mental lexicon (sense selection). They must create new senses (sense creation) by retrieving salient information from memory. We conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that these processes of memory retrieval parallel those used for ordinary lexical ambiguities. To prepare for Experiment 1, we gathered readers' interpretations of eponymous verb phrases like "do a John Travolta" to establish dominant and subordinate interpretations. We then wrote story contexts that biased comprehension toward one or the other interpretation. In Experiment 1, paraphrase judgment times were used to demonstrate that dominant meanings are privileged in the sense that they are accessible even when the story creates a subordinate bias. In Experiment 2, this privilege faded somewhat when there was a delay before the paraphrase judgment. We discuss the results with respect to the distinction between sense selection and sense creation.
Fractures at the distal end of the radius are quite common. So, these fractures are well known to represent consequences of industrial accidents leading to temporary unfitness for work, too. Eponym descriptions of fractures may mislead authors and readers as well if used in a non-uniform way in medical literature. Using the original articles of the first describing authors a clear distinction of eponyms concerning fractures near to the wrist joint is given. The authors of this feature report of the clinical experience in treatment and results of distal radius fractures in combination with aspects of expert opinions on these fractures.
Names are more difficult to recall than other facts about people such as occupations even when the words are nominally the same, e.g., Baker and baker. Subjects studied face photographs labeled with a surname and a medical diagnosis. Eponymous disorders were selected so that a given name could be used either as surname or diagnosis, e.g., Ms. Hodgkins or Hodgkin's disease. Nursing students (n = 24) tested in a within-subjects design recalled more eponymous diseases than surnames. There were few instances of confusing names and diseases, but names were often recalled to the wrong face. Education students (n = 18) recalled fewer diseases than did the nurses, and there was no difference in their recall of names and diseases. Nursing students tested in a between-groups design (n = 22 each) showed no impairment in name recall. The results suggest limitations in the role of meaningfulness in recall.
The history of eponyms for epilepsy in the lands of the Eastern globe present the portrait of the attitudes of both the laymen and skilled people towards the disease and patient, as well as to the Nature itself. As opposed to the West which during the Middle ages changed its concepts of epilepsy as the organic brain disease for the sublime 'alchemic' position, the people of the East were more prone to consider from the beginning of their civilization till the XIX century that epilepsy is the consequence of the evanescent spiritual and extracorporal forces which by themselves were out of their reach. As compared to the western civilization, the historical resources are, often as a consequence of a linguistic barriers, more scarce-as consequently is the number of eponyms, but are nevertheless picturesque. The medical science from Babylonian period presumed that epileptic manifestations are the consequence of the demonic or ill spiritual actions. There existed an attitude that at the beginning of an epileptic attack the patient was possessed by a demon (the Akkadic, i.e., Babylonian verb "sibtu" denoting epilepsy, had the meaning "to seize" or "to be obsessed"); at the end of the clonic phase the demon departed from the body. Different demons were responsible for different forms of epilepsy such as nocturnal and children epilepsy, absence epilepsy and pure convulsions, simple and complex automatisms, and gelastic epilepsy. Thus, the doctors from the period of Babylon aside from making primordial classification of epilepsies, knew about their clinical picture (prodromal symptoms and aura, Jackson's epilepsy. Todd's paralysis), postictal phenomena and intericatl emotional instability; provocative factors were also known (sleep deprivation, emotions, as well as alcohol, albeit in a negative sense-as a cure for epilepsy). There is no doubt than in the period of Babylon the clinical picture of serial fits and its progress to status epilepticus were clearly recognized and considered as life threatening events. Persian history of epilepsy, except from the 6th century Zoroastrian "Avesta" document, lacks the written or spoken medical heritage untill the 7th century A.D. and the Arabic conquest of the entire Moslem world. On the other hand, Islamic medicine should be freed from the simple prejudice that the Moslem authors were only the translators of Greek medicine; contrary to such a view, their work contains a high degree of individuality. Although Mohammed introduced a lot of novelty into medicine, Khoran and the Sayings do not explicitly refer to epilepsy. Of importance is to notice that Moslem medicine did not have demons in the "repertoire" of direct causes of epilepsy. The causes and the cures of epilepsy were more magic-mystical and occult in nature, which is reminiscent of the European, as well as Serbian Middle age attitudes. Avicenna recognized difference between children and adult epilepsy. He considered insomnia and afternoon siesta as well as intensive sounds and light to be a provocative factors, whereby we see that at least empirically he knew of sleep (deprivation), startle and reflex epilepsy. The XIII century invasion of Mongols brought about the recession in Moslem Medicine; it recovered only in the XVIII century under the strong influence of European medicine handed over to us through Jewish doctors of various nationalities. The story of the China history of epilepsy has its debut approximately in the 8th century B. C. Medical texts from this period name epilepsy "Dian" and "Xian" which meant "the falling sickness" and "convulsions", respectively. Chinese medical terminology often interchangeably used the words "mania", "madness" and "psychosis" for "epilepsy" which, aside from a prominent language barrier, brings additional confusion. Although Chinese documents gave the first description of the grand mal epileptic attack already in the 8th century B. C. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
Hodgkin's disease, the syndrome of enlarged lymph nodes associated with enlarged spleen, was described in 1832 on the basis of the gross appearance of the affected parts. The eponym entered the medical literature after repeated attempts by Dr. Samuel Wilks to credit Thomas Hodgkin with the priority of discovery. Today, this malady, also known by many other names, is recognized by microscopic examination of histological features. Hodgkin also described retroversion of the aortic valves with insufficiency in 1827 but Dr. Dominic Corrigan, whose report appeared in 1832, was credited with the eponym, despite efforts again by Wilks on behalf of Hodgkin.
The Lhermitte's sign was first described by Pierre Marie and Chatelin in 1917. Lhermitte reported on this symptom in 1920, and in 1924 he published the seminal article on the subject. In 1928, it was introduced to the American literature, and it was around that time that the symptom became well known. The historic development of this observation into an eponym is documented.
Aortic regurgitation is associated with numerous eponymous signs. We report the case of a patient with this condition who presented with a previously unidentified sign, namely pulsatile pseudo-proptosis. Furthermore, we place this in context by listing and describing to the best of our knowledge the largest all-inclusive series to-date of named signs.
PURPOSE: Kaspar Friedrich Wolff and Johannes Petrus Müller, German physicians in the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively, contributed significantly to the study of the biological sciences, specifically embryology and the development of the genitourinary tract. Their eponyms are a part of daily conversation in medical education, practice and research. We reviewed their lives and works. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Commentaries on the works of these scientists as well as available English translations of their works were analyzed. RESULTS: Wolff and Müller were pioneers in their fields. Wolff gained renown for his Theoria Generatonis, a great embryological treatise, produced in 1759. Müller performed significant studies in the fields of anatomy, pathology, physiology and embryology. In 1834 he became editor of the physiology journal that later came to be known as Müller's Archiv. CONCLUSIONS: Studies of and inferences about the development of the urogenital system a century apart by these 2 men contributed greatly to the current understanding of embryology. Their names remain a part of everyday medical dialogue.
The British surgeon William James West has not left a tremendous literary or scientific work as many of his contemporaries did. For this reason only a little has been known about him and the fate of his family for decades, even though the eponym was created in the 1960s. Only in 1990 was a first biography published and later on supplemented. If his son had not suffered from the syndrome, which later on was named after him, he would not have published the first description of the West syndrome in The Lancet in 1841. Possibly we would be talking about Newnham's syndrome, because 8 years later he published a detailed report on this subject. There is, however, a second aspect concerning the pioneering activity of West, i.e. his advocating of ovariotomy in its early days. To judge the importance of this feat correctly, it is necessary to keep in mind that his former pupil and practice-partner Gorham in 1874 obviously tried to exaggerate the role of West in ovariotomy. Nevertheless, it is worth keeping the memory of William James West and his son James Edwin alive, as happened at the International Symposium on West Syndrome and Other Infantile Epileptic Encephalopathies at Tokyo, 9-11 February in 2001, and by other occasions.
Frederick Parkes Weber described relapsing nonsuppurative panniculitis in 1925. In 1928, Henry Asbury Christian added the word "febrile" (relapsing febrile nodular nonsuppurative panniculitis), whereas Brill first coined the eponym "Weber-Christian disease" in 1936. This article traces the lives of Parkes Weber and Henry Christian and summarizes their original publications. It addresses only briefly the controversy as to whether Weber-Christian disease does or does not exist.
Lucien-Marie Pautrier, recognized during his life as a world-renowned dermatologist and venereologist, also wrote prolifically, established and headed a leading department at the medical school of Strasbourg, built an imposing structure to house the department, traveled widely in both Europe and the United States and founded the Société des Amis de la Musique at Strasbourg. He did all this while and between the two tragic World Wars that engulfed his beloved France. In the United States, his name is eponymically associated with Pautrier's microabscesses in mycosis fungoides despite the fact that he did not first describe them.