EPONYM USAGE

· Many terms in medicine, ranging from names of diseases to parts of the body to certain medical signs have been named after people. Eponymous terms are most commonly named after the person who first described them but occasionally they are named for famous patients who have had that condition.

For example:

Down syndrome

Ewing sarcoma

Arnold-Chiari malformation

Asperger syndrome

Gaucher disease

· Eponym is always capitalized but not the common nouns, adjectives, and prefixes that accompany them. Do not use possessive forms with eponyms.

For example:

Down syndrome (Correct)

Down's syndrome (Incorrect)
McBurney point (Correct)

McBurney's point (Incorrect)

non-Hodgkin lymphoma (Correct)

Gaucher disease (Correct)

· Adjectives and/or verbs derived from eponyms are not capitalized.

For example:

The patient is suffering from parkinsonism.

· Plurals of eponyms are made by adding s or es. Apostrophe is never used.

For example:

Babinskis (Correct)

Babinski's (Incorrect)

· The genus names should be capitalized only when in singular form and accompanied by a species name. Species name is never capitalized. The plurals and adjectival forms of genus are not capitalized.

For example:

Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Neisseria flavescens

Staphylococcus aureus

staphylococcal infection

meningococcal infection

staphylococci