Abdominal Physical Signs and Medical Eponyms: Part II. Physical Examination of Palpation, 1907-1926.

Abstract

Abdominal palpation is an important clinical skill used by physicians to detect the cause of the underlying disease. Abdominal physical signs reported as medical eponyms are sometimes helpful in supporting or confirming clinical suspicion of a diagnosis. With the advent of advanced and rapid imaging techniques physicians often know the diagnosis prior to setting their hands on patients. Nevertheless, knowledge of these signs may still remain important in settings where imaging may not be readily available and importantly provide deeper insights into the mechanism of disease. In this paper, described are medical eponyms associated with abdominal palpation from the period 1907-1926. PubMed, Medline, on-line Internet word searches, textbooks, and references from other source text were used as the data source. PubMed was searched using the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) of the name of the eponyms and text words associated with the sign. We describe brief historical background information about the physician who reported the sign, original description of the sign, and its clinical application and implication into today's medical practice.