The Current Use of Eponyms in the Field of Neuro-ophthalmology

Aim: Because neuro-ophthalmologic names are so conspicuously eponymous, we have decided to elucidate the current use of eponyms in articles dedicated in the field of neuro-ophthalmology.<br>Methods: We selected 145 eponyms relevant to neuro-ophthalmology and searched in the PubMed database for articles between 1950 and 2016, titled with possessive and non-possessive forms of eponyms. Additional searches were conducted on the Web of Science and Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi.<br>Results: The 100 top-ranked neuro-ophthalmology eponym classics (NOEC) in terms of the number of related articles were led by Alzheimer's disease with 46,896 articles, followed by Parkinson's disease and Down syndrome, while the 100th position had thirty-six articles. The first NOEC, Charles Bonnet syndrome, appeared in 1760 and the most recent (Susac syndrome) in 1979. NOEC distribution peaked around 1900 with the mean and median in 1918 and 1903, respectively. The source country for NOEC was led by Germany with twenty-two eponyms, followed by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and France. There has been virtually no de novo eponym since 1980. The majority of NOEC showed a steady rise over the sixty-seven-year period in the number of articles related to a given neuro-ophthalmology eponyms, but some eponyms peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by a significant decline, as exemplified by Schilder disease and Wegener granulomatosis. The gradual decline in the use of eponyms is due to a contemporary preference of descriptive nomenclatures, a transition exemplified by the renaming of Devic disease which is now termed aquaporin-4 neuromyelitis optica. NOEC used a variable proportion of possessive form and non-possessive form. It is remarkable that possessive form outnumbered non-possessive form until the 1970s, and only in recent decades the use of non-possessive form has predominated. In Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi, 900 Japanese articles were found with eponyms in titles, including Leber hereditary optic neuropathy and Bell palsy. Notably, the articles published before the Second World War had the honorific“shi”after the family name and only after the war was this custom abandoned.<br>Conclusions: Despite advantages and disadvantages, many eponyms have been used in the field of neuro-ophthalmology, but de novo eponyms may be rare in the future.