Uncovering the History of Operating Room Attire through Photographs.

Background: Although early proponents for each of the four basic articles of operating room clothing--gowns, caps, masks, and gloves--can be identified, it is unclear from historical commentaries when each article achieved general acceptance and was consistently worn by surgeons and by anesthesia providers.

Methods: Historical photographs were identified from the Web sites of the National Library of Medicine, Google, and the archives of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology for the 11 decades 1860 to 1970. The presence or absence of each article of clothing was then determined for the surgical and anesthesia providers depicted.

Diseases of aging that emerge from the metabolic syndrome.

With advancing age, interpatient variability increases. Physiologic and pathologic apoptosis progress at widely different rates in each organ system in each person. The effect of any disease on an individual depends on the genetic makeup, social and environmental insults, and adequacy of and compliance with medical therapy.