Gourt > Health > Conditions and Diseases > Sleep Disorders > Sleep Apnea > Pickwickian Syndrome
The Pickwickian syndrome, also known as obesity hypoventilation syndrome, is the combination of severe obesity, suffering from obstructive sleep apnea causing hypoxia and hypercapnia resulting in marked daytime somnolence. Although it is an eponym, it is not named after the doctor who first described it (as commonly happens) but after a literary character by Charles Dickens.
Literary origin
In The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, originally published in 1837 by Charles Dickens, there was an extremely obese boy named Joe who could not help falling asleep during the day.
A most violent and startling knocking was heard at the door; it was not an ordinary double knock, but a constant and uninterrupted succession of the loudest single raps, as if the knocker were endowed with the perpetual motion, or the person outside had forgotten to leave off. . . More on [ Pickwickian syndrome ]
Cor Pulmonale & Heart Disease
Obesity :: Nutrition and Metabolism Disorders
"Pickwickian Syndrome" named after Joe, the fat, red faced boy in Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers-form of sleep apnea: http://bit.ly/9sAkl
cyberbonn (cyberbonn) Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:37:18 -0000
"Pickwickian Syndrome" named after Joe, the fat, red faced boy in Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers-form of sleep apnea: http://bit.ly/9sAkl
Breathing Disorders During Sleep - Signs and symptoms of sleep apnea and Pickwickian syndrome; effects on the heart and other systems; treatment options; therapy and research.
Pickwickian - A physician's story of a patient with the syndrome.
Pickwickian Syndromes - Vanderbilt University discussion of the history of naming the syndrome, the causes, and its progression.
