Down With Peritonitis

Last week Dr. Reginald Sterling Mueller of Manhattan's Roosevelt Hospital announced that he had treated 75 cases of peritonitis with sulfanilamide, that not a single one has died. This and other reports made grade A medical news. Reason: the appendectomy is the most common U. S. emergency operation, and every year in the U. S. some 16,000 persons die of peritonitis following ruptures of the appendix. For some months past, several U. S. hospitals have been dousing inflamed peritoneums with sulfanilamide, watched the death rate from appendix ruptures drop from 20% to nearly zero.

This treatment is one more triumph in the spectacular history of sulfanilamide and other sulfonamide drugs. Most frequently these drugs have been taken by swallowing. But doctors have found that concentrations 80 times as great can be used if applied locally to wounds and infections. Sulfanilamide saved many a British soldier who escaped wounded from Dunkirk. Recently a surgeon attempting to remove a rectal tumor accidentally punched through into the abdominal cavity. He promptly poured in sulfanilamide. The patient, who might ordinarily have been expected to die, recovered.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.