Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry.

  • Jamieson Boyd Hurry
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    226/306 (page 206)
    Iodide Kruptions. A grievous artificial Circle has at times been established when potassium iodide has been prescribed for the cure of various forms of dermatitis, and is perhaps best dealt with here, since iodide eruptions are caused by irritation of the sweat and sebaceous glands. When the drug has provoked an eruption which is attributed to the original disorder, increased doses of iodide may be ordered in ignorance of the real cause of the aggravation, and in the hope of curing the very lesions the drug has produced ! There can be no doubt that death has sometimes resulted from such a lamentable error. Thus Thibierge writes : “ The various lesions provoked by iodide of potassium are often mistaken for manifestations of syphilis. This error of diagnosis leads to further use of the remedy, or even to increased doses. Hence result a persistence and aggra¬ vation of the eruption.” 1 Again, Brocq speaking of iodide eruptions, says : “ When the true nature of the eruption is not recognized, and the physician consequently persists in the administration of the iodide, the cutaneous lesions rapidly increase in number and severity, invade the mucous membranes, and become haemorrhagic. Albuminuria, diarrhoea, and marasmus gradually supervene, and the patient may succumb.” 2 The danger is perhaps all the greater from the fact that accoutumance does not occur. One attack of a drug eruption seems to intensify the susceptibility to subsequent attacks.3 1 Pratique Dermatologique, Vol. II., p. 487. - Dermatologie Pratique, Vol. I., p. 412. 3 Morrow, Monographs on Dermatology (N.S.S.), 1893, pp. 367, 500.