Sheehan Syndrome

Description

Alternate names: Glinski syndrome; Reye syndrome; and Sheehan syndrome apply to necrosis of the pituitary during the postpartum period. Simmonds syndrome which is unrelated to postpartum complications

History

1913 – Leon Konrad Glinski (1870-1918) was a Polish physician

1914 – German physician, Morris Simmonds (1855-1925) recognised the clinical features were associated with destruction of the anterior lobe of the pituitary; case described in a patient with severe cachexia. Sometimes called Simmonds syndrome which is unrelated to postpartum complications

1928 – Reye

1937 – Sheehan

1949 – Sheehan and Vincent Kirwan Summers (1914-1975) published in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine on the syndrome of hypopituitarism. The paper showed convincingly that emaciation and premature senility (previously considered to be essential for the diagnosis of pituitary insufficiency), were not features of the syndrome. This paper, rather than Sheehan’s earlier papers on pituitary necrosis, led to the syndrome of post-partum pituitary necrosis becoming known as Sheehan syndrome

Associated Persons

• Leon Konrad Glinski (1870-1918)
• Morris Simmonds (1855-1925)
• Harold Leeming Sheehan (1900-1988)

Alternative names

• Glinski syndrome; Reye syndrome; and Sheehan’s syndrome
• Simmonds syndrome

Controversies

Did they first describe or popularise or plagiarise?

References

Historical references

• Glinskí LZ. Kazuistiky zmian anatomopatologicznych w paszysadce mózgomej. Przegla̧d Lekarski, 1913; 52: 13–14
• Glinski LK. Anatomische veranderungen der hypophyse. Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift 1913; 39(1): 473. [abstract]
• Simmonds M. Über Hypophysischwund mit tödlichem Ausgang. Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift, Berlin, 1914; 40: 322-323
• Reye E. Die ersten klinischen Symptome bei Schwund des Hypophysenvorderlappens (Simmondssche Krankheit) und ihre erfolgreiche Behandlung. Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1928; 54: 696
• Sheehan HL. Post-partum necrosis of the anterior pituitary. The Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology 1937; 45(1): 189-214
• Sheehan HL, Murdoch R. Post-partum necrosis of the anterior pituitary: Pathological and clinical aspects. J Obstet Gynaecol Br Emp 1938; 45: 456-472
• Sheehan HL. Post-Partum Necrosis of the Anterior Pituitary. Trans Edinb Obstet Soc. 1938;58:13-28.
• Sheehan HL. Simmonds’s disease due to post-partum necrosis of the anterior pituitary. Quarterly Journal of Medicine, Oxford. 1939; 8(4): 277–309
• Sheehan HL, Summers VK. The syndrome of hypopituitarism, Quarterly Journal of Medicine, Oxford, 1949; 18(4): 319–378

Eponymous term review

• Gonzalez JG, Elizondo G, Saldivar D, Nanez H, Todd LE, Villarreal JZ. Pituitary gland growth during normal pregnancy: an in vivo study using magnetic resonance imaging. Am J Med. 1988 Aug;85(2):217-20
• Tessnow AH, Wilson JD. The changing face of Sheehan’s syndrome. Am J Med Sci. 2010 Nov;340(5):402-6. 
• Schury MP, Adigun R. Sheehan Syndrome. 2021 Sep 8. In: StatPearls [Internet].