Eponyms( Gk. word Epi = upon; onyma = name) are names derived from the names of things diseases/ conditions etc. derived from the name of persons / place / things. We use eponyms in our day to day life without realising it - Diesel engine (named after Rudolf Diesel) , atlas are good examples. Some eponyms come from Mythology - Ulysses syndrome is an example. This reflects unnecessary multiple tests done on patients based on a single abnormal result much like the futility of the tasks done by the mythological Ulysses. Some eponyms are derived from the literature - Pickwckiaan syndrome (from the fat boy in Picwick papers by Charles Dickens); Jekyll and Hyde syndrome consisting of behaviour disorder with multiple personalities mimiking the character from RL Stevenson's story. Framingham study is a geographic eponym. Legionnaire's disease is a corporate eponym. Many eponyms are named after the discoverer - Quick test after the haematologist and Bowmann's capsule after the anatomist. Some eponyms are attributed to the wrong people - Saint after whom the Saint's triad is named (gall stones, diverticulitis, hiatus hernia) never described it! Some eponyms are shorter and more comfortable than the original disease - Paget's disease is better than the official name osteodystrophica chronica deformans hypertrophica. Eponyms liven the medical history and are said to be " one of the vestiges of the humanism remaining in an increasingly numeralised and computerised society."!
Sometimes more than one eponym describes a single condition - Weil's disease, Fiedler's disease, Landouzy's disease' are the same condition!Sometimes same name denotes different diseases - Pott's fracture, Pott's gangrene, Pott's paralysis, Pott's puffy tumour are different disorders. There are at least 3 different types of Albright syndrome. Some double barrel eponyms exist - Chidiak - Higashi syndrome (hyphenated) was described by 2 people ; Austin Flint murmur (unhyphenaed) is one person! So are the other unhyphenated double eponyms indicating a single person - Marcus Gunn pupil, Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and Bence Jones protein. Lawrence - Moon - Biedl syndrome is a triple eponym which became famous only after Biedl described it. Charcot - Marie - Tooth - Hoffman syndrome is an example of a quadruple eponym.
Tashima syndrome is an interesting one where the physician searches for a new disease to attach his name to. Tashima from Houston described it first. Stingler's law says that many times the eponyms are not named after the original discoverer. Stingler feels that eponymy is the rightful reward of the original discoverer. Pott's fracture was not only described by Pott but also suffered by him.
There is a recent move to drop the apostrophe form possessive eponmys (that is with an apostrophe) so that what was called Hodgkin's disease will now be called Hodgkin disease . Bell palsy (named after Sir Charles Bell) is another example. Sometimes the word "of" is used - Circle of Willis is an example. Saying a positive Babinski (instead of an extensor plantar ) is a truncated eponym. To say "to Kocherize" is an example of a derivative eponym. Some eponyms are derived not from people but from things (caisson disease - caisson is a pressurised chamber). Some multiple different eponyms relate to different people - Pick disease ( by a German Pathologist); Pick disease (by a Czetch Psychiatrist), Pick Pedricarditis (by a Czetch - Austrian physician). Some eponyms have difficult spellings - Kupffer cell, Kuntscher nail, Papanicaoaou smear are some examples.
Whatever it is, doubtlessly the eponyms add life to otherwise dull matters and makes learning interesting. Only time will tell whether the eponyms will withstand the modern methods of learning and teaching!
Sometimes more than one eponym describes a single condition - Weil's disease, Fiedler's disease, Landouzy's disease' are the same condition!Sometimes same name denotes different diseases - Pott's fracture, Pott's gangrene, Pott's paralysis, Pott's puffy tumour are different disorders. There are at least 3 different types of Albright syndrome. Some double barrel eponyms exist - Chidiak - Higashi syndrome (hyphenated) was described by 2 people ; Austin Flint murmur (unhyphenaed) is one person! So are the other unhyphenated double eponyms indicating a single person - Marcus Gunn pupil, Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and Bence Jones protein. Lawrence - Moon - Biedl syndrome is a triple eponym which became famous only after Biedl described it. Charcot - Marie - Tooth - Hoffman syndrome is an example of a quadruple eponym.
Tashima syndrome is an interesting one where the physician searches for a new disease to attach his name to. Tashima from Houston described it first. Stingler's law says that many times the eponyms are not named after the original discoverer. Stingler feels that eponymy is the rightful reward of the original discoverer. Pott's fracture was not only described by Pott but also suffered by him.
There is a recent move to drop the apostrophe form possessive eponmys (that is with an apostrophe) so that what was called Hodgkin's disease will now be called Hodgkin disease . Bell palsy (named after Sir Charles Bell) is another example. Sometimes the word "of" is used - Circle of Willis is an example. Saying a positive Babinski (instead of an extensor plantar ) is a truncated eponym. To say "to Kocherize" is an example of a derivative eponym. Some eponyms are derived not from people but from things (caisson disease - caisson is a pressurised chamber). Some multiple different eponyms relate to different people - Pick disease ( by a German Pathologist); Pick disease (by a Czetch Psychiatrist), Pick Pedricarditis (by a Czetch - Austrian physician). Some eponyms have difficult spellings - Kupffer cell, Kuntscher nail, Papanicaoaou smear are some examples.
Whatever it is, doubtlessly the eponyms add life to otherwise dull matters and makes learning interesting. Only time will tell whether the eponyms will withstand the modern methods of learning and teaching!
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