In general, an eponym is a person or a place or a thing after which something is named. The word eponym is derived from the Greek eponumos that means ‘given as a name, giving one’s name to a thing or person‘. The use of eponyms has become somewhat antiquated and there is a trend away from them.
There are many different eponyms used to name pathologies and treatments related to the foot.
Jacks Test
Hubscher manoeuvre
Durlacher corn
Lister’s Corn
Mortons Toe
Brailsford Disease
Mueller-Weiss Syndrome
Severs Disease
Jones Fracture
Köhler’s disease
Freiberg infraction
Böhler angle
Gissane angle
Chopart joint
Lisfranc joint
Syme amputation
Kirby Skive
Ostler’s Nail
Whitman Brace
Roberts Plate
Weil Osteotomy
Haglund’s Deformity
Master Knot of Henry
Morton’s neuroma
Hoke’s tonsil
Joplin’s neuroma
Lemont’s nerve
Baxter’s nerve
Baxter’s neuritis
Mulder’s click
Sullivan’s sign
Helbing’s Sign
Charcot’s Foot
Root Theory
Kager’s Triangle
Babinsky´s sign
Gower’s sign
Tailor’s Bunion
Evans procedure
Akin osteotomy
Terry’s Nails
Mee’s Lines
Muehrcke’s lines
Beau’s Lines
Bauer Bump
Cluffy Wedge
Horwood Extension
Morarty Pad
Reverse Mortons
Beekman Pronation Test
Mortons Extension
Denton modification
Feehery Modification
Fettig modification or technique
Blake Inverted Foot Orthotic
Brachman Skate (This was a brace for the treatment of clubfoot developed by Dr Philip R Brachman DPM in the 1940’s)
Dennis-Browne Bar (Sir Denis Browne, 1892–1967)
Ganley Splint
In addition to the above eponyms whose names were given by peers and colleagues to honor, as a sign of respect and to recognize the first to publish on the topic, there are a number of instances in which the authors have self-named things after themselves:
Rothbarts Foot
Ranjeet-Kunal Index for Plantar fasciitis
Angle of BRINK
The Trend Away From Eponyms:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1962844/#:~:text=Eponyms%20do%20not%20reflect%20scientific,a%20group%20effort%20over%20time.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ca.22409
https://acpinternist.org/archives/2021/03/whats-in-an-eponym-discussing-namesake-diseases.htm
External Links:
Eponymous terms of the foot and ankle
Related Topics:
Podiatry Related Mnemonics:
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