pickwickian syndrome

Main Entry: Pick·wick·ian syndrome
Pronunciation: (')pik-'wik-E-&n-
Function: noun
: obesity accompanied by somnolence and lethargy,hypoventilation, hypoxia, and secondary polycythemia
Pickáwick /'pik-"wik/, Samuel, literary character. Pickwick is the title character in the novel The Posthumous Papersof the Pickwick Club (1836–37) by Charles Dickens. In the novel one of the characters, Joe, is described as a “fat and red-faced boy in a state of somnolence.” The termPickwickian syndrome was first used by C. S. Burwell in an article on the syndrome in 1956. The name was chosen because Dickens's description was the first description of the syndrome found inliterature.

pickwickian syndrome pick·wick·i·an syndrome (pĭk-wĭk'ē-ən)
n.
A syndrome characterized by extreme obesity, hypoventilation, and general debility.

pickwickian syndrome

a complex of respiratory and circulatory symptoms associated with extreme obesity. The name originates from the fat boy depicted in Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers, who showed some of the same traits. (By some definitions, to be obese is to exceed one's ideal weight by 20 percent or more; an extremely obese person would exceed the optimum weight by a much larger percentage.) This condition often occurs in association with sleep apnea, which is another common complication of obesity.

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