Heneage Ogilvie
Sir William Heneage Ogilvie (1887-1971) was a British surgeon
23 years at Guy’s Hospital, London
Renowned for his teaching in the surgical fellowship and for his provocative and stimulating approach, particularly to the problems of gastric surgery, he rapidly built up a successful practice
One of the very few medical men of his generation to serve in three wars: the Balkan War (1912-1913) and the two world wars. Outside of war, Ogilvie travelled extensively, and founded The Surgical Travellers Club visiting leading surgical clinics throughout Europe. In his spare time he was a great yachtsman and Commodore of the Oxford University Sailing Club and the United Hospitals Sailing Club.
Ogilvie’s outstanding ability as a writer was exemplified by his essays, including Surgery, orthodox and heterodox (1948), No miracles among friends (1959) and The tired business man (1964), which reveal an individual style and clarity of expression perhaps without peer among medical writers of his time. In addition to this he wrote nearly 200 articles in medical journals and was joint editor of The Practitioner from 1946 to 1962 and editor of the first two editions of Recent advances in surgery.
Ogilvie favoured a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet. He wrote the foreword for Richard Mackarness’ book Eat Fat and Grow Slim in 1958
Biography
- Born on July 14, 1887 at Valparaiso, Chile
- 1910 – first class honours in physiology at New College, Oxford
- 1912 – served in the Balkan Wars
- 1913 – BM BCh Oxon and MRCS LRCP Guy’s Hospital, London
- 1914-1920 surgeon for the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC); a close spectator of the fierce argument that raged in WWI between the antiseptic surgeons and the physiological surgeons.
- 1920 – MCh, FRCS
- 1924 – MD; Hunterian Professor
- 1925 – appointed assistant surgeon to Guy’s Hospital
- 1927 – Founded the Surgical Travellers’ Club following the encouragement of Berkeley Moynihan
- 1940-1945 Major-General and consulting surgeon to the Mediterranean Forces; East Africa Command 1940-1942, Middle East Land Forces 1942-1944 , and Eastern Command 1944-1945
- 1946 – Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE)
- 1947 – Bradshaw Lecture on “Surgical handicraft“
- 1957 – Mason. Upper Warden of the Feltmakers’ Company; Master (1958)
- Additional distinctions: Hon FACS (1938); Hon FRCS Canada (1943); Hon FRACS (1947)
- Died April 15, 1971 at Wimbledon, London
The surgeon who is his own physician, though he often has a fool for a colleague, has the happiness of working in an atmosphere of mutual confidence and admiration.
Ogilvie 1948 Lancet
Medical Eponyms
Ogilvie Syndrome (1948)
Acute colonic pseudo-obstruction (ACPO or Ogilvie syndrome) is an under-recognized disorder characterized by acute and extensive dilatation of the colon in the absence of an anatomic lesion obstructing the gastrointestinal tract.
Most often associated with local causes such as Caesarean section; pelvic surgery; trauma; orthopaedic surgery or systemic causes including sepsis, medications (such as narcotics/sedatives)
Ogilvie described two cases of colonic ileus that he attributes to sympathetic deprivation caused by invasion by tumour.
Thomas sign (1955)
1955 Ogilvie reported on two cases of ampullary cancer presenting with silver stools. A 46 year old female presenting with obstructive jaundice and weight loss; and a 78 year old male presenting with anaemia, and jaundice post blood transfusion. In both cases the stool sample were analysed by Dr Antony Michael Thomas (1913-1971), who made the tentative connection between the stool colour, consistency and carcinoma.
Dr. A. M. Thomas, pathologist to the Royal Masonic Hospital, has pointed out that in cancer involving the ampulla of Vater the patient sometimes passes “silver stools” – that is, motions having the colour of oxidized silver or aluminium paint. The silver or grey stool is a combination of the white stool of obstructive jaundice and the black stool of melaena.
So far as I am aware the silver stool has never been described before. I bring the sign to the attention of surgeons because Dr. Thomas has not yet reported it himself and, being a pathologist, he is likely to report it in a journal read only by his brother pathologists.
Ogilvie 1955
Major Publications
- Ogilvie H. Place of medical societies in the doctor’s life. Lancet. 1946 Apr 13;1(6398):525.
- Ogilvie H. Diagnosis and decision in the acute abdominal emergencies. Practitioner. 1947 Jan;158(943):2-10.
- Ogilvie H. Surgical handicraft. Lancet. 1947 Apr 26;1(6452):543-50.
- Ogilvie H. A surgeon’s life. Lancet. 1948 Jul 3;2(6514):1-6.
- Ogilvie H. Large-intestine colic due to sympathetic deprivation; a new clinical syndrome. Br Med J. 1948 Oct 9;2(4579):671-3. [Ogilvie Syndrome]
- Ogilvie H. Surgery, orthodox and heterodox. 1948
- Ogilvie H. In praise of idleness. Br Med J. 1949 Apr 16;1(4606):645-51.
- Ogilvie H. Early recognition of disease. 1949
- Ogilvie H. Pain and its problems. 1950
- Ogilvie H. Thomas’s sign, or the silver stool in cancer of the ampulla of Vater. Br Med J. 1955 Jan 22;1(4907):208 [Thomas sign]
- Ogilvie H. No miracles among friends. 1959
- Ogilvie H. Hernia. 1959
- Ogilvie H. Fifty; an approach to the problems of middle age. 1962
- Ogilvie H. The tired business man. 1964
…a misleading symptom is misleading only to one able to be misled. Yet the word mislead does convey the impression of motion, and he who is stationary cannot be misled. In this sense surgeons are more likely to be misled than physicians, for they are more likely to do something. The policy of masterly inactivity sufficiently persisted in, is an infallible guard against misduction
Ogilvie 1948
References
Biography
- Ogilvie, Sir William Heneage (1887 – 1971) (rcseng.ac.uk)
- Obituary: Sir Heneage Ogilvie. Br Med J 1971;2:282
- Obituary: William Heneage Ogilvie. Lancet 1971; 297(7705): 921
- Biography: Ogilvie, Sir William Heneage (1887-1971). Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows Online. Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Eponymous terms
- Weiss W. Zur Ätiologie des Megaduodenums. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie, Leipzig, 1938,; 251: 317-330. ][Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie v.251 1938. – Limited View | HathiTrust Digital Library]
- Dunlop JA. Ogilvie’s Syndrome of False Colonic Obstruction. Br Med J 1949;1:890
- Macfarlane JA, Kay SK. Ogilvie’s syndrome of false colonic obstruction; is it a new clinical entity? Br Med J. 1949 Dec 3;2(4639):1267-9.
- Wells CA. The Surgical Travellers: Golden Jubilee 1927-1977. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1978 Jan;60(1):73–5.
- Ogilvie WH. William Heneage Ogilvie 1887-1971. Large-intestine colic due to sympathetic deprivation. A new clinical syndrome. Dis Colon Rectum. 1987 Dec;30(12):984-7.
- Ogilvie Syndrome. Stat Pearls
Eponym
the person behind the name
