Pardon My French

As the Greeks are making headlines on a daily basis at the moment, we as physicians should remember what they have given to our medical culture: their language, or at least its historic version—ancient Greek. In congenital heart disease, with which this issue deals primarily, we encounter the Greeks from the isthmus to the tetralogy, from cyanosis to anastomosis. The list is endless: stethoscope, electrocardiography, hypertension, hypoxemia, atresia, you name it. When medicine slowly developed into a scientific specialty, a common language had to be found which would be understandable to the educated scholar around the world—or what was known of it then. This quest resulted in kind of an Esperanto mix of ancient Greek and Latin. All this happened, of course, when these were among the primary subjects taught at higher schools. Today, it is rather esoteric to learn something so seemingly superfluous as a classic language.

Nowadays the language of scientific publication is unequivocally English, much to the chagrin of the notoriously proud French. (Who, by the way, are eager to protect the equally proud Greeks in their current misery—but this is becoming too political.) Coming back to congenital heart disease, we must nevertheless pay homage to French physicians: Étienne-Louis Arthur Fallot and Francois Fontan to name but two of the most eminent ones. In 1888, Monsieur le docteur Fallot (1850–1911) for the first time described the coincidence of apparently four pathologic findings in what he called “la maladie bleue” in his native language or “morbus coeruleus” for the classicists, this time of the Latin fraction.[1] The less Francophile or -phone readers may want to consult a superb summary in English by Richard van Praagh, celebrating the centennial of this landmark publication.[2] It was Maude Abbott, grandmother of all pediatric cardiologists, who coined the phrase Tetralogy of Fallot in 1924.[2] [3]

Francois Fontan (born 1929) first proved that as a human being you do not necessarily need a pumping ventricle to perfuse the lungs. Based on the preliminary experimental[4] and early clinical[5] work of William Glenn at Yale, he considered the possibility of a total direct systemic venous drainage into the pulmonary arterial circulation if certain criteria were met, especially a low pulmonary vascular resistance. After extensive experiments in dogs, three patients with tricuspid atresia were finally operated between 1968 and 1970 with two surviving. This was finally reported in January 1971 in French.[6] In May of the same year, the somewhat extended English publication followed in Thorax.[7] For an editor it is interesting to see how the list of authors had by then shrunk from six to two. This latter paper is commonly cited as the “original Fontan publication” which is not correct. It is probably just the much more accessible one.

The two big “French Fs,” Fallot et Fontan (please note the alliteration), are good examples how a nonnative language may serve to spread the news. The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon (ThCVS), then still called “Thoraxchirurgie, Vaskuläre Chirurgie” and published in German, had recognized the importance of internationalization as early as 1963 by allowing first abstracts and then full articles to be published in English and French (!). Interestingly, the first papers printed in these foreign languages both dealt with esophageal surgery.[8] [9] In 1979, the journal turned fully English and got the title it still bears today. Submissions in German and French were still possible in the beginning. In case of acceptance, however, the author was responsible for the translation into English.

In 2014 ThCVS received manuscripts from 34 countries. Not surprisingly we saw a wide variety of English languages used. When the content of a manuscript is difficult to understand it may be rejected without review and language editing by the authors required. After acceptance of a paper Thieme Publishers are fortunately still able to provide what is called “language polishing” for minor corrections without a cost (!). From the Editor's side I hope to keep seeing submissions from around the globe. France and Greece included, of course.

• References

• 1 Fallot A. Contribution a l'anatomie pathologique de la maladie bleue. Mars Med 1888; 25: 77-93 , 138–158, 207–223, 270–286, 341–354, 403–420
• 2 Van Praagh R. Etienne-Louis Arthur Fallot and his tetralogy: a new translation of Fallot's summary and a modern reassessment of this anomaly. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 1989; 3 (5) 381-386
• 3 Abbott ME, Dawson WT. The clinical classification of congenital cardiac disease, with remarks upon its pathological anatomy, diagnosis and treatment. Int Clin 1924; 4: 156-188
• 4 Glenn WWR, Patino JF. Circulatory by-pass of the right heart. I. Preliminary observations on the direct delivery of vena caval blood into the pulmonary arterial circulation; azygos vein-pulmonary artery shunt. Yale J Biol Med 1954; 27 (3) 147-151
• 5 Glenn WWL. Circulatory bypass of the right side of the heart. IV. Shunt between superior vena cava and distal right pulmonary artery; report of clinical application. N Engl J Med 1958; 259 (3) 117-120
• 6 Fontan F, Mounicot FB, Baudet E, Simonneau J, Gordo J, Gouffrant JM. “Correction” de l'atrésie tricuspidienne. Rapport de deux cas “corrigés” par l'utilisation d'une technique chirurgicale nouvelle. Ann Chir Thorac Cardiovasc 1971; 10 (1) 39-47
• 7 Fontan F, Baudet E. Surgical repair of tricuspid atresia. Thorax 1971; 26 (3) 240-248
• 8 Richard CA. Traitement du cancer de l'oesophage. Thoraxchirurgie 1963; 11: 44-46
• 9 Gunning AJ. Reflux oesophagitis, carcinoma of the oesophagus and replacement of the oesophagus. Thoraxchir Vask Chir 1963; 11: 40-44