While I was an intern at the University of Minnesota VA Hospital, Dr. Max H. Weil, my resident and myself took care of two very obese subjects who were also polycythemic. We published for the first time a distinct syndrome “polycythemia of obesity” and related this to the restricted ventilation imposed by massive obesity. Weight reduction was followed by reversal of this syndrome, correction of polycythemia and correction of full arterial oxygen saturation. Following our publication, the same syndrome was published with a different title, pickwickian syndrome, which turned out to be more popular than our simple title polycythemia of obesity.
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