Wegener's granulomatosis historical perspective


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Historical Perspective
Scottish otolaryngologist Peter McBride (1854–1946) first described the condition in 1897 in a British Medical Journal article entitled "Photographs of a case of rapid destruction of the nose and face". Heinz Karl Ernst Klinger (1907–       ) would add information on the anatomical pathology, but the full picture was presented by Friedrich Wegener (1907–1990), a German pathologist, in two reports in 1936 and 1939.

An earlier name for the disease was pathergic granulomatososis. The disease is still sometimes confused with lethal midline granuloma and lymphomatoid granulomatosis, both malignant lymphomas.

In 2006, Dr. Alexander Woywodt (Preston, United Kingdom) and Dr. Eric Matteson (Mayo Clinic, USA) investigated Dr. Wegener's past, and discovered that he was, at least at some point of his career, a follower of the Nazi regime. In addition, their data indicate that Dr. Wegener was wanted by Polish authorities and that his files were forwarded to the United Nations War Crimes Commission. Finally, Dr. Wegener worked in close proximity to the genocide machinery in Lodz. Their data raise serious concerns about Dr. Wegener's professional conduct. They suggest that the eponym be abandoned and propose "ANCA-associated granulomatous vasculitis." The authors have since campaigned for other medical eponyms to be abandoned, too.