A Short Historic View of Nephrology upto the 20th Century

Greydanus De,Raj Vms

doi:10.4172/2090-7214.1000195

Abstract

It is easy for a non-nephrologist to become lost in the complexities of renal physiology, diagnosis, and treatment—i.e., to miss the forest for the trees. It is not unusual for one to “fall” into the loop of Henle (discovered by the 19th century German anatomist, Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle [1809-1885] and not return after being weighed down by a seemingly skimble-scamble litany of renal sagacities. Thus, one can ask: “what is the role (“the forest”) of the primary care clinician in the diagnosis and management of pediatric renal disorders (“the trees”)?” What is the forest and what are the trees in this perspective? Certainly, seeking to stay current on basic principles of pediatric nephrology is important such as fluid and electrolyte physiology and management of pediatric dehydration. In this short review we summarize some of the pioneer work done in nephrology up till the 20th century.

Highlights

The study of life began with the emergence of Homo sapiens over 100,000 years ago [1]
Archaic models of a kidney have been found such as that from the 13th century BC found at an ancient temple in Kition, Cyprus; this bronze artifact has been interpreted by scholars as an example of an offering (“ex voto suscepto or from the vow made”) to the temple gods by a person with kidney disease or as a teaching aid by the euhemerists or priest doctors of the temple [5]
Sir Robert Christison (1797-1882) Another early pioneer and pharos in nephrology of the 19th century was Sir Robert Christison from Edinburgh, Scotland who made seminal advances in nephrology, pharmacology, and jurisprudence [29]. He provided many contributions to the understanding of renal disease including confirming the observations of Richard Bright, expanded the understanding of uremia as well as anemia in renal failure, discerned that albuminuria and edema might be reversible in some situations, detailed microscopic studies of urine as well as the kidney, and linked some cases of acute renal failure to toxins or poisons [29,30]

Summary

Introduction

The study of life began with the emergence of Homo sapiens over 100,000 years ago [1]. Hippocrates has been called the (ancient) father of clinical nephrology as his statements on the kidney (Greek: nephros) were unchallenged for over 19 centuries [5].

Results

Conclusion