Experience with salvarsan : Ehrlich-Hata's 606 in the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital / Howard Fox and William B. Trimble.

  • Fox, Howard, 1873-1947
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Experience with salvarsan : Ehrlich-Hata's 606 in the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital / Howard Fox and William B. Trimble. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    9/12 (page 7)
    tlie disease witli mercurj-. In three cases in wliich raucous patches were present (4, 6, 12) there was a most rapid disappearance of the lesions after injection. The result of treatment in the case of lepros}”^ was most unsatisfactory. No change whatever occurred in the lesions and the patient’s general condition has become decidedly worse. Eelapses occurred in three cases, in two of which we thought at first that splendid results had been obtained. One of these cases (2) presented a pustulo-cnistaceous syphilid of somewhat malignant type that had grown worse under internal administration of mercury. The patient improved rapidly for a month, the Wassermann reaction becoming nearly negative and the ulcerated lesions of the nose, ear, arms and legs healing almost completely. He then suffered a severe relapse, his con- dition becoming nearly as bad as at the outset. He was given a second injection and the manifestations have again almost disappeared. A disappointing relapse was also shown by a patient (Case 11) with extensive gummatous ulceration of the hard and soft palate. The improvement was most strik- ing at first, the ulcerated area being reduced to half its original size, at the end of a week. A relapse then occurred and' the patient was given a second injection which was again followed by a relapse. As it is almost impossible to administer mercury to this patient it is our intention to give him one or two more injections of sal- varsan in the near future. It would be unwarranted to draw any .general con- clusions from our limited material. It must be admitted, however, that the effect of the new remedv. in causing lesions to disappear rapidly, has been striking in several of our cases. In other cases, however, the lesions have disappeared rather slowly. In comparison with what might have been expected from a vigorous mercurial treatment, the results do not appear to be especially brilliant. In several of the cases the disease had not been controlled by mercury and responded very favorably to salvarsan. Indeed in one case (11) the ])atient had found it practically impossible to take mer- cury in spite of persistent attempts to administer the dhiig by mouth, inunctions and injections. Jn the limited number of cases in which we have used salvarsan it has seemed to us that the lesions of the