functio laesa

{{Short description|Loss of organ function}}

Functio laesa is a term used in medicine to refer to a loss of function{{cite web |url=http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands_split.jsp?pg=/ppdocs/us/common/dorlands/dorland/seven/000096919.htm |title=Dorlands Medical Dictionary:cardinal signs}}{{cite web |url=http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?functio+laesa |title=Definition: functio laesa from Online Medical Dictionary }} or a disturbance of function.{{cite journal |author=Rather LJ |title=Disturbance of function (functio laesa): The legendary fifth cardinal sign of inflammation, added by Galen to the four cardinal signs of Celsus |journal=Bull N Y Acad Med |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=303–22 |date=March 1971 |pmid=5276838 |pmc=1749862 }}

It was identified as the fifth sign of acute inflammation by Galen, who added it to the four signs identified by Celsus (tumor, rubor, calor, and dolor).{{cite book |author=Porth, Carol |title=Essentials of pahtophysiology: concepts of altered health states |publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins |location=Hagerstown, MD |year=2007 |pages=270 |isbn=978-0-7817-7087-3 }}

The attribution to Galen is disputed, and has variously been attributed to Thomas Sydenham{{cite book |author=Dormandy, Thomas |title=The worst of evils: man's fight against pain |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Conn |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/worstofevilsmans00dorm/page/22 22] |isbn=0-300-11322-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/worstofevilsmans00dorm/page/22 }} and Rudolf Virchow.{{cite book |author1=David Lowell Strayer |author2=Raphael Rubin |title=Rubin's Pathology: Clinicopathologic Foundations of Medicine 5th Edition |publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins |location=Hagerstown, MD |year=2007 |pages=37 |isbn=978-0-7817-9516-6 }}