Hoffa’s fat pad, Hoffa’s disease, Hoffa’s fracture: the history of eponyms

Abstract

Albert Hoffa’s is associated with three popular eponymous terms: the infrapatellar fat pad (Hoffa’s fat pad), the pathology of this anatomical development (Hoffa’s disease), and a frontal fracture of the lateral condyle of the femur (Hoffa’s fracture). Issues of priority about the mentioned eponyms continue to be debated. The authors searched for information in domestic and foreign publications, traumatology and orthopedics manuals, periodicals, and Internet resources — Scopus, WoS, Google Scholar, and eLibrary — to collect reliable data on the history of the emergence of the eponyms “Hoff’s fatty body,” “Hoff’s disease,” “Hoff’s fracture” and to determine the role of the German orthopedist and his priority in the origin of these copyright names. Professor John Goodsir’s paper in 1855 contains one of the earliest mentions of the infrapatellar fat pad but without revealing the anatomy and morphology of the structure itself. In 1904, Albert Hoffa published an article describing fully the syntopic and macroscopic anatomy of the infrapatellar fat pad and the disease associated with infrapatellar fat pad pathology. A German physician, Friedrich Busch, first described the frontal fracture of the lateral condyle of the femur in 1869. A similar was described by Albert Hoffa in the first edition of the “Textbook of Fractures and Dislocations for Doctors and Students” in 1888. Albert Hoffa’s priority in describing the infrapatellar fat pad and its pathology is recognized by representatives of various medical specialties. As for the frontal fracture of the lateral condyle of the femur, Albert Hoffa may only be considered a co-author of the frontal fracture of the lateral condyle of the femur.

Keywords

eponyms / Hoffa’s fat pad / Hoffa’s disease / Hoffa’s fracture

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