Benjamin Collins Brodie
Biography
- Born 1783
- Died 21 October 1862
Medical Eponyms
- Brodie’s abscess – chronic metaphyseal abscess of a bone
- Brodie’s knee –
- Brodie-Trendelenburg percussion test
Key Medical Attributions
Reactive arthritis (1818)
1818 – Brodie reported case histories of five patients with the symptom complex of urethral discharge, arthritis, and inflammation of the eyes. Further case descriptions were added in the 1836 4th edition of his textbook. Brodie clearly describes a disease pattern of recurrent episodes of acute urethritis, arthritis, and conjunctivitis. The arthritis affected the knees, ankles, and feet predominantly, but one patient had ‘swelling of nearly all the joints‘.
Case 1: In a man aged 45, arthritis and conjunctivitis developed about a week after a urethral discharge. The joints of the feet and knees were first involved and later the right elbow and shoulder were painful but without “any perceptible swelling”. The attack lasted 6 to 7 weeks; 6 months later he had “another attack of the same complaint” lasting about 6 weeks, and after 3 months iritis occurred. He subsequently had a second attack of iritis 4 years later.
Brodie, 1818: 54-60 and cases 2-6: 1836: 61-63
Controversies
1794 – Giovanni Battista Montéggia (1762-1815) was the first to describe the pathology of gonorrhoeal arthritis, Annotazioni pratiche sopra i mali venerei, an observation for which Brodie is usually credited.
Major Publications
- Brodie B. Pathological and Surgical Observations on Diseases of the Joints. London: Longman. 1818 [Reactive arthritis: Case 1: 54-60][Case 2-6: 1836:61-63]
- Brodie B. Lectures illustrative of certain local nervous affections. London: Longman. 1837
- Brodie B. On the advantages of exercise in some spinal deviations. London: Causton. 1837
- Brodie B. Lectures on the diseases of the urinary organs. London: Longman. 1842
- Brodie B. An introductory discourse on the duties and conduct of medical students and practitioners. London: Longman. 1843
- Brodie B. A physiological essay on the thymus gland. London: Renshaw. 1845
- Brodie B. Lectures illustrative of various subjects in pathology and surgery. London: Longman. 1846
- Brodie B. Psychological inquiries: in a series of essays, intended to illustrate the mutual relations of the physical organization and the mental faculties. London: Longman. 1856
- Brodie B. Physiological inquiries: in a series of essays, intended to illustrate the mutual relations of the physical organization and the mental faculties. London: Longman. 1858
References
- Autobiography and bibliography of the late Sir Benjamin C. Brodie. Longmans, Green. 1865
- Biography: Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins (1783 – 1862). Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows Online. Royal College of Surgeons of England.
- Mostofi SB. Who’s Who in Orthopedics. Springer; pp 41-43. 2005 edition
- Le Fanu WR. Sir Benjamin Brodie, F.R.S. (1783-1862). 1964;19(1):42-52