MEDICAL EPONYM OF THE WEEK

Grey-Turner’s Sign: a bluish discoloration of the flanks caused by the retroperitoneal leak of blood from the inflamed pancreas in hemorrhagic pancreatitis.

In 1920, the British surgeon George Grey Turner (1877-1951), published in the British Journal of Surgery an article entitled “Local discoloration of abdominal wall as a sign of acute pancreatitis,” a publication that would propel him into eponymic perpetuity for physical signs. e preferred abdominal and esopahageal surgery

He grew up and was educated in Newcastle.  Following medical school, he went for further training at Kings College Hospital in London.  He served in the Middle East with the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I, and then returned to Newcastle.  With some reluctance, he took on the title of the First Professor of Surgery at the new ly formed Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith, London.  Traveling worldwide, he knew many of the world’s great surgeons, who visited him in return. The Mayo brothers watched him operate in Newcastle and “commented on his great skill.”  He had a particular interest in surgery of the abdomen and esophagus, especially cancer surgery and pioneered the “pull-through of the esophagus for cancer of the gullet.” Cancer surgery was his forte, and he treated malignancy aggressively but anticipated that chemotherapy – “something we will inject” - would eventually be developed.  In wartime he advanced trauma surgery for pulmonary wounds.  A superb and meticulous surgeon, observers noted, “He always appeared to be in a hurry except when operating; yet in the operating theater his avoidance of unnecessary maneuvers gave the impression of speed.” “Anticipating clinical governance and risk management,” prior to surgery he always marked the correct side of the hernia he planned to repair. 

While walking and gardening were his hobbies, his passion was visiting museums of pathological specimens.  Asked to reorganize the Hunterian Museum after it sustained bomb damage in World War II, he kept many of the specimens at his home for safe-keeping until the war was over.  Turner was of short stature, tended to dress shabbily and was known for wearing a large, well-used bowler hat that he placed over his teacup to help preserve its warmth.  

Clyde Partin

Sources Cited:

White, Harvey.  An Outstanding ISS/SIC Surgeon:  George Grey Turner.  World J of Surgery. 2003; 27: 511-513.

Whonamedit?.com.  George Turner Grey.  Accessed 7 Feb 2011

Turner GG.  Local discoloration of abdominal wall as a sign of acute pancreatitis.  British Journal of Surgery, London, 1920; 7: 394-395.