The probable first description of EDS was by Hippocrates in 400 B.C. In 1657 a Dutch surgeon noted a case history of a boy with hyperextensible skin. The first association of hypermobile joints to skin was published in 1892 in Moscow. Edvard Ehlers in 1901 defined it as a (still nameless) distinct disorder in a case history, including lax joints, hyperextensible skin, and a tendency to bruise. In 1908, Henri-Alexandre Danlos published a second case history. In 1936, Frederick Parkes-Weber suggested the disorder be named Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The first set of classifications of EDS types—the numbers system—originated in the late 1960s and was formalized in 1988. The current named diagnostic criteria were agreed on in 1997 and published in 1998. To put it in personal terms, Ehlers published his study the year my maternal grandmother was born. EDS didnt have a name until my mother (from whom I inherited EDS) was three years old. There werent criteria to diagnose EDS until I was 11, the most recent diagnostic categories coming when I was 41. And both my mother and grandmother were gone by the time I knew what having the family joints meant. EDS are less than one hundred years old. If a generation is about 20 years, we are into only the fourth generation of doctors who could know what EDS are by name, and just the third who have had guidelines for diagnosis. We have come a long way quickly, although it can be hard to see when we have so far to go. #EDNF #GivingTuesday
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 16:00:01 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015