ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS: THE CASE OF THE CLAUDE BERNARD HORNER SYNDROME

Resumo

The syndrome called mainly in the French world as Claude Bernard Horner was first described by Francois Pourfour du Petit, in 1727, but more thoroughly defined by the French physiologist, Claude Bernard, in 1852, followed by several physicians who offered different interpretations, mainly Silas Weir Mitchell (1864). The clinical and pharmacological implications, with the final wrap-up of the syndrome, were
presented by a Swiss ophthalmologist, Johann Friedrich Horner, in 1869. This is a cooperative definition of a syndrome of the sympathetic disruption of the ocular inervation, with final addings mainly about pharmacological approach by Horner, but with credits to many others clinicians and physiologists. This is the case of repeated presentations of a "new sign" in neurology with few additions from one
to another.