The concept of harm related to physician practices has been recognized for more than 3500 years.<sup>46Medicine Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1988). 

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti</sup> In a given era, attitudes toward medically related harms have been conditioned by the existing medical epistemology, by the locus of medical practice, and by prevalent social attitudes. Use of the term iatrogenic, which is derived from the Greek words iatros (healer) and genic (origin), was initially used in reference to disorders induced through autosuggestion as a consequence of the physician interaction.⁷⁰ During the 1950s and 1960s, this term was modified to reflect physician-caused harms that were inevitable consequences of appropriate medical practice and therefore were viewed as the price to be paid for medical advances.<sup>49Moser R.H. Diseases of medical progress N Engl J Med 1956 ;  255 : 606-614 [cross-ref]

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti</sup> By the 1970s, however, the definition had been extended to include harms related to inappropriate or nonoptimal care.<sup>33Illich I. Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health New York: Pantheon Books (1976).  25-26

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti</sup> More recently, the term iatrogenic has been broadened even further to reflect any adverse effect of medical or nursing care, including acts of omission.<sup>41Levin L.S. Editorial introduction Iatrogenics 1991 ;  1 : 1

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti</sup> Because of the different ways that iatrogenic has been used, the author has coined and proposed the term comiogenic illness to reflect the adverse consequences of health care delivery as broadly de fined.<sup>59Sharpe V.A., Faden A.I.  Medical Harm: Historical, Conceptual and Ethical Dimensions of Iatrogenic Illness Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press (December 1997). 

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Neurologic illness relating to health care delivery has been increasingly de scribed since the 1960s, primarily in the general medical literature.<sup>22Faden A.I., Sharpe V.A. Iatrogenic neurological complications Arch Neurol 1994 ;  51 : 1184-1185

Cliccare qui per andare alla sezione Riferimenti</sup> Iatrogenic neurologic complications either have been defined generically in terms of consequences of particular therapeutic or diagnostic approaches, or have been delineated with reference to more specific and serious complications, such as intracerebral hemorrhage. In these reports, little attempt has been made to situate iatrogenic neurologic complications, either historically or conceptually, within the larger framework of medically related harms. Moreover, in this literature, few suggestions have been provided with regard to strategies to reduce such complications. This article places the problem of iatrogenic neurologic complications within a larger historical and conceptual framework as well as provides suggestions for limiting such injuries.