[The surname of Adamkiewicz in the medical terminology in the last three decades of the 20th century].
Nearly eighty years after his death, Albert Adamkiewicz (1850-1921) has still been persisting in both the history of medicine owing to his work and in the medical terminology owing to eponymy: since his flourishing period toward the end of the XIXth century, the surname Adamkiewicz has entered the language of science as a proper-name constituent of anatomical, pathological, neurological, surgical as well as orthopaedic terms, combing with the appellatives stain, corpuscle or demilune, reaction or test, serum, syndrome as well as artery. Estimation of the actual vitality of particular eponymous terms compared with non-eponymous synonyms had to be the aim of the presented search in the scientific literature a century after. In contrast with the inert non-periodical (encyclopaedic) literature, periodicals have revealed all the eponymous terms fallen in oblivion except the 'Adamkiewicz artery' that has only recently been introduced in encyclopaedias although constantly preferred in periodicals of the period under investigation (appearing in 75% articles) over the most frequent non-eponymous synonym 'arteria radicularis magna / great(er) radicular artery' (scarcely 11% articles). Thanks to the 'artery' - joining furthermore several synonyms to appear nearly in 86% articles altogether - the surname Adamkiewicz persists in the living language of science; that is why its bearer ought to be remembered and mentioned even on the threshold of the XXIst century.
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D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D011044:Poland; D009626:Terminology as Topic