William West
William James West (1794-1848) was an English surgeon and general practitioner
William West was a successful country town surgeon-apothecary who took a major role in the local movement for medical reform.
He published the first series of ovariotomies in England in 1837 and is eponymously associated with West Syndrome (Infantile Spasms) following a letter to the editor of the Lancet describing the seizure disorder witnessed in his own son
Biography
- Born in Oundle, 1794
- Apprenticed to his uncle, Mr Lomax, a surgeon-apothecary in LondonMedical studies at Guy’s Hospital, London
- 1815 – member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS)
- 1824 – country surgeon and general practitioner in Tonbridge, Kent
- 1840 – birth of son James Edwin West, developed infantile spasms aged 4 months
- 1840s – manager of the Tonbridge Savings Bank, vice-president of the Tonbridge Literary Society, on the committee for new almshouses and of the National School, and a director of the Tonbridge Gas Company
- Died 1848 of dropsy
Medical Eponyms
West Syndrome (1841)
West Syndrome (Infantile Spasms) – Triad of infantile spasms, developmental delay and hypsarrhythmia on EEG
1840 – Dr. William James West (1794-1848) had taken his son, James Edwin West (1840-1860), for a consultation with Sir Charles Clarke when he was 4 months old. The standard remedies of leeches; calomel; phlogiston; hot baths; and opium had failed to resolve his ‘attacks of emprosthotonus’. Clarke had already seen 4 such cases which he termed the ‘salaam convulsions of infancy‘ to describe the flexion and extension nature of the seizures.
1841 – William West describes the seizures affecting his son in a letter to the editor of the Lancet.
The child is now near a year old; was a remarkably fine, healthy child when born, and continued to thrive till he was four months old. It was at this time that I first observed slight bobbings of the head forward, which I then regarded as a trick, but were, in fact, the first indications of disease; for these bobbings increased in frequency, and at length became so frequent and powerful, as to cause a complete heaving of the head forward toward his knees… he neither possesses the intellectual vivacity or the power of moving his limbs, of a child of his age… he has no power of holding himself upright or using his limbs, and his head falls without support.
West WJ 1841
Major Publications
- West WJ. Case of compound fracture of the cranium, accompanied with hernia cerebri, and extensive sloughing of the substance of the brain – recovery. Lancet 1831; 15(386):571
- West WJ. Successful operation for the removal of an ovarian tumour. Lancet 1837; 29(743):307-308
- West WJ. On a peculiar form of infantile convulsions. Lancet. 1841; 35(911)0: 724–725. [Original article] [West Syndrome]
References
Biography
- Ford JM. William James West (1794-1848): abdominal surgeon and distraught father. J Med Biogr. 2003 May;11(2):107-13
Eponymous terms
- Wilks S, Habershon SO, Hodgkin T. Catalogue of the pathological preparations in the Museum of Guy’s Hospital. 1863: p324
- Duncan R. Infantile spasms: the original description of Dr. West. Epileptic Disorders. 2001; 3:47-48.
- Lux AL. West & son: the origins of West syndrome. Brain Dev. 2001 Nov;23(7):443-6.
- Eling P, Renier WO, Pomper J, Baram TZ. The mystery of the Doctor’s son, or the riddle of West syndrome. Neurology. 2002 Mar 26;58(6):953-5
Eponym
the person behind the name
Dr Tim Martin MBBS BSc Emergency medicine trainee with an interest in paediatrics | LinkedIn |
