A medical condition characterized by bluish discoloration of the skin and tissues, typically caused by inadequate oxygenation of the blood.
From cyano- (Greek kyanos 'dark blue') + -pathy (Greek pathos 'disease, suffering'). This 19th-century medical term directly describes the visible symptoms of oxygen deficiency in the body.
Before oxygen therapy and cardiac surgery, cyanopathy was a grim prognosis—'blue baby' syndrome killed thousands until doctors figured out how to surgically repair the heart defects that prevented proper oxygen circulation.
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