The Maladies of House

These days, I only watch two primetime shows: Lost and House. Most people have seen or at least know a little bit about Lost, but House is still relatively unknown, despite being a ratings success.

For those of you who don't watch, the show focuses on Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a brilliant diagnostician who works at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. The basic formula for each episode has him and staff being presented a patient with a bizarre combination of symptoms. They must figure out what the exact cause of the patient's ailments is before he or she dies from them.

Watching this show and listening to all the obscure (as well as common) ailments that emerge as the culprits, I wonder if their medical well will ever run dry. Probably not, but for the sake of my love of the show and my love of research, I've decided to do a complete episode listing with the responsible afflictions listed for each one. Enjoy!


(WARNING: As should be obvious, this list pretty much contains spoilers for every episode that has aired so far. Some of these have such obscure names that it won't matter if you know it or not. Others, like 2-13, is a dead giveaway for what the final twist is.)


Season One

1-1: Pilot - Tapeworm

1-2: Paternity - Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis

1-3: Occam's Razor - Colchicine Poisoning

1-4: Maternity - Echovirus 11

1-5: Damned If You Do - Copper Allergy (via IUD)

1-6: The Socratic Method - Wilson's Disease

1-7: Fidelity - African Sleeping Sickness

1-8: Poison - Pesticide Poisoning

1-9: DNR - Arterial Venous Malformation

1-10: Histories - Rabies

1-11: Detox - Acute Naphthalene Toxicity

1-12: Sports Medicine - Cadmium Poisoning

1-13: Cursed - Leprosy

1-14: Control - Bulimia

1-15: Mob Rules - Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency

1-16: Heavy - Cushing's Syndrome

1-17: Role Model - Common Variable Immunodeficiency

1-18: Babies & Bathwater - Small Cell Lung Cancer

1-19: Kids - Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

1-20: Love Hurts - Fulminating Osteomyelitis

1-21: Three Stories - (a) Flesh-eating "Strep" Bacteria, (b) Cancerous Tumor and (c) Aneurysm

1-22: The Honeymoon - Acute Intermittent Porphyria


Season Two

2-1: Acceptance - Pheochromocytoma

2-2: Autopsy - Blood Clot

2-3: Humpty Dumpty - Psittacosis

2-4: TB or Not TB - Pancreatic Tumor

2-5: Daddy's Boy - Radiation Sickness

2-6: Spin - Thymoma

2-7: Hunting - Echinococcosis

2-8: The Mistake - Hepatoma

2-9: Deception - Clostridium Perfringens

2-10: Failure to Communicate - Cerebral Malaria

2-11: Need to Know - Adenoma

2-12: Distractions - Serotonin Storm

2-13: Skin Deep - Testicular Cancer

2-14: Sex Kills - Gonorrhea

2-15: Clueless - Heavy Metal (Gold) Poisoning

2-16: Safe - Tick Paralysis

2-17: All In - Erdheim-Chester

2-18: Sleeping Dogs Lie - Bubonic Plague

2-19: House vs. God - Herpes Encephalitis

2-20 & 2-21: Euphoria - Naegleria

2-22: Forever - Celiac Disease

2-23: Who's Your Daddy? - Zygomycosis Fungus

2-24: No Reason - Inconclusive ... but that's OK. It was all a hallucination anyway!