- A dictionary of medical eponyms

James Bray Costen

Born  1895
Died  1962

Related eponyms

American otorhinolaryngologist, born 1895, Tennessee; died 1962.

Biography of James Bray Costen

James Bray Costen was born in Tennessee but grew up in Arkansas. While in high school, he was apprenticed to a local physician who taught him to give open drop anaesthesia for office procedures and dressing changes.

After high school, attended Virginia Military Institute, but when his father became ill one year later he returned and attended the University of Arkansas. He graduated the Department of Chemistry. He then went to Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, which was affiliated with St Louis Medical College.

When the United States entered the war in 1917 Costen volunteered. After his return he completed medical school and then went to Vienna to study at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus in Vienna. From Vienna he went to Basel, Switzerland, where he concentrated on the mastoid bone and its dissection.

Back in St. Louis, he married Carolyn Thompson. They had one son and three daughters.

Costen practised for about one year with another otolaryngologist, then settled in solo practice in midtown St. Louis and remained there for the rest of his career.

Bibliography

  • A syndrome of ear and sinus symptoms dependent upon disturbed function of the temporomandibular joint.
    Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, St. Louis, 1934, 43: 1-15.
  • Group of symptoms frequently involved in general diagnosis, typical of sinus and ear disease and of mandibular joint pathology.
    Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, 1935, 32: 184-190.
  • Neuralgias and ear symptoms involved in general diagnosis due to mandibular joint pathology. The Journal of the Kansas Medical Society, Topeka, 1935, 36: 315-321.
  • Glossodynia; reflex irritation from mandibular joint as principal etiologic factor; study of 10 cases. Archives of Otolaryngology, Chicago, 1935, 22: 554-564.
  • Neuralgias and ear symptoms associated with disturbed function of temporomandibular joint.
    The Journal of the American Medical Association, Chicago, 1936, 107: 252-255.
  • Some features of mandibular articulation as it pertains to otolaryngology.
    The International Journal of Orthodontia and Oral Surgery, St. Louis, 1936, 22: 1011-1017.
  • Neuralgias and ear symptoms associated with mandibular joint.
    Transactions of the Section on Laryngology, Otology and Rhinology of the American Medical Association, Chicago, 1936: 11: 72-83.
  • Summary of neuralgias and ear symptoms associated with mandibular joint.
    The Mississippi doctor, 1937, 15: 33-41.
  • Some features of mandibular articulation as it pertains to medical diagnosis, especially in otolaryngology.
    The Journal of the American Dental Association and the Dental Cosmos, Chicago, 1937, 24: 1507-1511.
  • X-ray study in relation to mandibular joint syndrome. With E. C. Ernst.
    Radiology, 1938, 30: 68-75.
  • Correlation of x-ray findings in mandibular joint with clinical signs, especially trismus. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 1939, 26, 405-407.
  • Mechanism of trismus and its occurrence in mandibular joint dysfunction.
    The Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, St. Louis, 1939, 48: 499-514.
  • Classification and treatment of temporomandibular joint problems.
    The Journal of the Michigan State Medical Society, St. Paul, 1956, 55: 673-677.

What is an eponym?

An eponym is a word derived from the name of a person, whether real or fictional. A medical eponym is thus any word related to medicine, whose name is derived from a person.

What is Whonamedit?

Whonamedit.com is a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms. It is our ambition to present a complete survey of all medical phenomena named for a person, with a biography of that person.

Disclaimer:

Whonamedit? does not give medical advice.
This survey of medical eponyms and the persons behind them is meant as a general interest site only. No information found here must under any circumstances be used for medical purposes, diagnostically, therapeutically or otherwise. If you, or anybody close to you, is affected, or believe to be affected, by any condition mentioned here: see a doctor.