The Medical and scientific archives of the Adelaide Hospital. No. 6 (for the year 1926.)

  • Adelaide Hospital (Adelaide, S. Aust.)
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Medical and scientific archives of the Adelaide Hospital. No. 6 (for the year 1926.). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cases. The highest and lowest maximum doses were 3,000 and 100 million respectively. ^ • In one of the cases that was cured after recurrence a haemolytic Streptococcus was present. The largest dose of t e Vtanhu of injections was 200 million Streptococci and 2,000 million Staphy¬ lococcus aureus, and the number given was 18. Of the failures, one was a diabetic patient with a carbuncle which eventually caused his death; others, even on a repetition of a series of injections, were stated to show no response to the treatment. In Wright’s first series of inoculations he met one case in the six treated which did not respond, and it is obvious that some individuals with boils are resistant to specific immunisation. Various explana¬ tions have been offered. Wright suggested that the failure was an individual pecularity giving rise to a lowered response to ,speci c stimuli. Certainly 10 cases in this series showed no response—m some instances there was an initial improvement, 'but all the cases latterly became resistant even to greatly increased dosage. These cases seem to demand, therefore, some other form of treat¬ ment, either by colloidal metals, protein shock, or a change in environ ment or nutrition, in order that a cure may be effected. Some peculiarity in carbohydrate metabolism has been thought to be a factor in some cases. There may or may not be an increase in the blood sugar. In these cases cure may be hastened by a limitation of the carbohydrate intake. On the whole the treatment of boils and carbuncles by vaccines is successful, and gives a high proportion of cures. If boils and pustules are recurrent and difficult to clear up, it is both a curative and prophylactive measure and gives very good results. This, ot course, does not mean that surgical procedures can be replaced by vaccine treatment. The presence of pus in these conditions, as in al! others, demands free drainage, but in the stage before pus formation the giving of vaccine, especially if combined with colloidal manganese injections, will often cause resolution and cure. Suppuration Unclassified (including Wound and Sinus Infections). Cured. Improved. I. S. Q. Total 10 12 11 33 or or or 30-30 % 36-36 % 33-33 % r Included in this section are a number of cases of abscesses in vari¬ ous situations. The organisms found were chiefly Staphylococcus mireus, in a few Streptococci, and in others again coliform bacilli were isolated. A few cases of osteomyelitis are. included, though these cases, demanding as they do adequate surgical drainage, can¬ not, when this is at fault, be expected to greatly benefit from vaccine treatment. Vaccines do not usually prevent surgical interference in deep-seated suppurations. Early incision, where tension exists, may prevent the need for vaccine treatment by reducing damage to sur rounding tissues. Early diagnosis and free drainage in cases of osteomyelitis, even when tho infecting agent is proved to be a haemolytic streptococcus, as a rule renders the use of vaccine un¬ necessary. In one case, however, the diagnosis was delayed, and at operation extensive osteomyelitis of the tibia was disclosed. Staphy-
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