A presentation is given of the stages through which Ormond in 1962 managed to define Idiopathic Retroperitoneal Fibrosis (RPF), thereby giving it a precise clinical identity while the disease became known with his name. In the following years Ormond examined some etiopathogenetic hypotheses and showed that the etiology of RPF was still unknown, even if in some cases the cause had been traced to some medicines, such as methysergide, which were thought to act as haptens. The anatomical limits of the retroperitoneum and its structures are then outlined, in particular the retroperitoneal connective tissue.
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OrmondJ.K.: Idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis, an established clinical entity. JAMA, 174: 1561–1568, 1960.
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OrmondJ.K.: Idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis, Ormond's syndrome. Henry Ford Hosp. Bull., 10: 13–20, 1962.
