Top Ten Publications of 2001

The occasion of Sydney Finegold’s 80th birthday is a time to reflect on the extraordinary life and accomplishments of this giant in the field of infectious diseases. For my contribution to this symposium, my decision was to review the most important publications in the field of infectious diseases for the year 2001. It should be acknowledged from the outset that there is a sparse contribution from those who have worked in the field of anaerobic infections and anaerobic bacteriology. This fact, by itself, is a great accolade to Dr. Finegold. During the early 1960s, he led the campaign to recognize, culture, and treat infections caused by anaerobes. At that time, Bacteroides fragilis was second only to Escherichia coli as a cause of gram-negative bacillary bacteremia at the Mayo Clinic, putrid lung abscesses were referred to as “non-specific lung abscess,” and appendicitis was routinely treated with penicillin plus gentamicin or cephalothin. The campaign led by Dr. Finegold penetrated deeply into the field of medicine. There were multiple symposia, clinical laboratories were persuaded to culture oxygen-sensitive forms, and pharmaceutical companies began testing their drugs for activity against anaerobes in vitro and in vivo. The effort was notably assisted by the introduction of the Gas-Pak jar, which facilitated detection of anaerobes; the taxonomy was finally placed in reasonable order; and clindamycin became a favored drug for management. These events transpired during the period 1965–1975. In retrospect, this is probably one of the most successful campaigns in the history of medicine, and it dramatically altered practice patterns. Dr. Finegold would probably say that it was very much the combined contributions of a large group, but there was never any doubt about its leader, who is a clinician,