The word phthisis, pronounced “TIE-sis”, is an ancient Greek medical term which describes any disease of which the main symptom is atrophy or wasting of some kind. The wasting may occur in any part of the body; for example phthisis bulbi describes a disease or injury which causes atrophy of an eyeball. The Greek physician Hippocrates also used the word to describe the disease which is now called tuberculosis.

Historically, the term has been applied to any disease of which atrophy is a symptom. The term is much less all-encompassing in modern Western medicine, however, and is now commonly used only in reference to tuberculosis or ocular atrophy. The use of the term is uncommon even in the context of tuberculosis; its most common use is now to describe atrophy of the eye.

Phthisis pulmonalis is another name for pulmonary tuberculosis. Throughout history, tuberculosis has also been referred to as consumption, scrofula, wasting disease, white plague, and king’s evil. In the latter case, the name was applied due to an eleventh century belief that a person with the disease could be cured if they were touched by Edward the Confessor, the Anglo-Saxon English king of that period.

Pulmonary phthisis is now known simply as tuberculosis. This sometimes fatal lung infection is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The infection is commonly spread through contact with sneezing or coughing emissions of someone with tuberculosis. Symptoms include chronic cough, weight loss, fever, and night sweats; many people also cough up bloody sputum from deep within the lungs. Treatment of tuberculosis requires courses of multiple antibiotics. This treatment is often of long duration, with patients taking medication for six to twelve months.

Phthisis bulbi describes the shrunken appearance of an eye that has wasted as a result of ocular disease or injury. The eye is typically non-functional. This eye condition may develop as a result of a range of different injuries or diseases. Examples include severe infection or inflammation, radiation, retinoblastoma cancer, and chronic retinal detachment. The eye may become scarred or abnormally shaped, and eventually the entire eyeball atrophies and becomes completely non-functional.

There is no treatment for this eye condition. Once the eyeball has atrophied to this extent, nothing can save even partial vision in the eye. If the eyeball is chronically painful, it may be removed and replaced with a prosthesis. The eyeball may also be replaced for cosmetic reasons, as the atrophied eyeball is misshapen and may also cause the eye socket itself to become misshapen.