Definition of "puerperal fever" [puerperal fever]

• An illness resulting from infection of the endometrium following childbirth or abortion, marked by fever and septicemia and usually caused by unsterile technique. Also called childbed fever. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This most important discovery that external infection causes puerperal fever was used in general practice only at"
• "Of far greater importance is the simultaneous discovery of the cause of puerperal fever (pyaemia) by Ignaz Philipp"
• "Joseph Lister; narcosis -- Jackson, Simpson; obstetrics, cause of puerperal fever Semmelweiss; in ophthalmology -- Albrecht von Grafe and (speculum oculi) Helmholtz; in bacteriology and serotheraphy --"