Saint's triad is a medical term used to describe the concurrence of the following:

1. Cholelithiasis
2. Hiatal Hernia
3. Diverticular Disease
   Diverticulosis
   Diverticulosis also known as "diverticular disease" is the condition of having diverticula in the colon, which are outpocketings of the colonic mucosa and submucosa through weaknesses of muscle layers in the colon wall. These are more common in the sigmoid colon, which is a common place for...
   
   

History

Saint's triad is named after the British surgeon Prof C.F.M.Saint, the term's eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

, who established the first school of surgery in South Africa. He emphasized the importance of considering the possibility of multiple separate diseases in a patient whenever his or her history and the results of the physical examination were atypical of any single condition. Traditionally, there is thought to be no pathophysiological basis for the coexistence of these three diseases. Saint emphasized that more than one disease may be responsible for a patient's clinical signs and symptoms, and his Triad provides a counterexample to the commonly used diagnostic principle that "the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible," also known as Occam's Razor

Occam's razor

Occam's razor, also known as Ockham's razor, and sometimes expressed in Latin as lex parsimoniae , is a principle that generally recommends from among competing hypotheses selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.-Overview:The principle is often summarized as "simpler explanations...

 . The principle underlying Saint's triad is also expressed as Hickam's dictum

Hickam's dictum

Hickam's dictum is a counterargument to the use of Occam's razor in the medical profession. The principle is commonly stated: "Patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please". The principle is attributed to John Hickam, MD...

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Recent evidence

An intriguing twist, however, to this philosophic discussion on the art of diagnosis is that in recent times the possibility of an underlying pathophysiosology has been considered—obesity is associated with gallstones, hiatus hernia, and diverticular disease, and there is the suggestion of an underlying connective tissue defect such as a "herniosis."

External links

• Case of Saint's Triad on Upper GI Barium Examination