In 1973, Tilney [1] reported on several patients in hemorrhagic shock from ruptured
aortic aneurysm who subsequently died from failure of organs that were uninvolved in
the initial hypotensive event. Whereas he might have anticipated hepatic and renal dysfunction,
his patients were dying from pulmonary, cardiac, and neurologic complications.
At the same time, Baue [2] discussed a syndrome with multiple progressive, or sequential
systems organ failure. It was Eisner, et al. [3], and Frye, et al. [4], who coined the term "multiple organ failure." More recently, Bone et al. [5] have designated this the "multiple
organ dysfunction syndrome."