Colles fracture
Colles fracture: Extra-articular fracture of the distal radius with dorsal angulation of the distal fragment. Abraham Colles (1814)
Category Eponymictionary
Meath Hospital
The Meath Hospital (Ospidéal na Mí) was the oldest voluntary hospital in continuous existence in Ireland; the oldest university teaching hospital; and a most significant hub of medical eponyms and notable names.
Just Read the Map
John Snow (1813-1858) was one of the first anaesthetists – he even chloroformed Queen Victoria! – but today he is famous for his investigation of the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak in Soho, London. By mapping the cases of cholera…
Lincoln sign
Lincoln sign refers to forceful popliteal artery pulsation secondary to aortic regurgitation; exaggerated when the patient sits with legs crossed; and deemed positive if the elevated foot bobs up and down with each systolic contraction.
Guillain–Barré syndrome
Guillain-Barré syndrome is the most common and severe acute inflammatory paralytic neuropathy. The classical description of GBS involves rapidly progressive bilateral weakness, usually starting in the distal lower extremities and ascending proximally.
Oslerus osleri
Sir William Osler was a man of not inconsiderable talent. A pathologist and clinician. A professor successively at McGill University, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University. Historian and bibliographer of medicine. A naturalist, microscopist, proponent of…
Crazy Bug Hunter 003
Alfred Russel Wallace did not knowingly study infectious diseases or their microbial causes, but he did travel extensively and repeatedly put himself in the biological line of fire, as evidenced in his many writings.
Crazy Bug Hunter 001
Fleming’s role in the discovery and subsequent development of penicillin is well-known parable of the importance of serendipity in medical research. Fewer people know anything about the Scots bacteriologist’s earlier discovery of lysosyme or his work on the bacteriology of traumatic wound infection.
Chvostek sign
Chvostek sign is contraction of facial muscles provoked by lightly tapping over the facial nerve anterior to the ear as it crosses the zygomatic arch.
Corrigan pulse
Corrigan pulse is the excessive visible arterial pulsations in aortic incompetence. Not to be confused with the palpated 'water-hammer pulse'.
Moschcowitz disease
Moschcowitz disease (1924) [aka *thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)]. Congenital syndrome characterised by thrombocytopenia, purpura, haemolytic anaemia, hyaline thromboses, renal failure and neurological symptoms.
Cotard syndrome
Cotard syndrome: A rare condition characterized by nihilistic delusions, where a patient believes that they are dead, have missing organs, or have decaying or failing body parts.