- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Eisenmenger's syndrome (Victor Eisenmenger)

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A congenital, progressive cardiac failure usually due to the Eisenmenger complex, a ventricular septal defect. It comprises a congenital intra-cardiac systemic pulmonary communication with a reversal of the left-to-right shunt resulting from severe pulmonary hypertension. People with Eisenmenger's syndrome are usually born with a large hole in the heart.

Victor Eisenmenger in 1897 described a 32-year-old man with a large ventricular septal defect.

The term Eisenmenger's syndrome was introduced in 1958 by Paul Hamilton Wood (1907-1962).

We thank Martin Lehn and Fred Wu for information submitted.

Bibliography

  • V. Eisenmenger:
    Die angeborenen Defekte der Kammerscheidewände des Herzens.
    Zeitschrift für klinische Medizin, 1897, 32 (Supplement): 1-28.
  • M. E. Abbott:
    Atlas of congenital cardiac disease.
    American Heart Association, N.Y, 1936.
  • P. Wood:
    The Eisenmenger syndrome or pulmonary hypertension with reversed central shunt.
    British Medical Journal, 1958, 2: 701-709, 755-762.
  • P. Wood:
    Pulmonary hypertension with special reference to the vasoconstrictive factor.
    British Heart Journal, October 1958, 20: 557-570.

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