What does the term “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” mean?

The abbreviation ALS stands for the medical term “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis”. It is the medical name that the first person to describe ALS proposed for this disease in 1874. This medical-historical term describes the basic elements of the disease. “Amyotrophic” can be translated as “without muscles”. The word “lateral sclerosis” stands for “lateral calcification”. This term refers to the breakdown of the lateral cord in the spinal cord, which embodies the central motor nerve pathway in the spinal cord and degenerates in ALS.

A free translation of the term amyotrophic lateral sclerosis means “muscle atrophy due to a breakdown of the lateral cords in the spinal cord”. This term is to be understood exclusively historically, as the term only describes the changes at spinal cord level and does not describe the paralytic nature of the disease. The term ALS is therefore not “correct” in terms of content, but it is a globally binding name for the underlying disease. The broad use of a historical disease term is not only typical for ALS, but affects medicine as a whole. Examples of widely used historical terms are “multiple sclerosis”, “cancer”, “arteriosclerosis”, “stroke” and numerous terms for other serious diseases.