Landmarks in the history of adrenal surgery.

The last 100 years have seen a revolution in the understanding of adrenal disease and its surgical treatment. The isolation of its hormones, the detailed study of the adrenal medulla and the cortex together with the enormous expansion of surgical methods served as catalysts to this revolution. The Greek word for adrenal (epinephridio, from the Greek epi, upon, and nephros, kidney) dates back to the age of Homer who mentions the adrenal glands. In his Iliad (21, 204), when describing Achilles’ killing of an adversary, Homer writes: “About him, indeed, the eels and fishes were busied, eating and nibbling the fat around his kidneys”.1 Although Homer seems to be aware of the tissue upon the kidneys, translated by Buckley as fat,1 and because of his extensive anatomical knowledge, he appears here to be referring to the left flank in general. In the Bible, Leviticus (3:4) contains a similar description of the adrenals, which again were understood to be integral parts of the kidneys: “the kidneys and the fat that is on them at the loins”.2