PERICAPILLARY ENCEPHALORRHAGIA DUE TO ARSPHENAMINE

Abstract

Within the last three years two cases of so-called arsphenamine encephalitis came under our observation. The first case was one of syphilis with a history of a recent infection, while in the second case the patient was known definitely to be nonsyphilitic, the clinical diagnosis resting between acute multiple sclerosis¹and disseminated meningo-encephalomyelitis.²In addition to the significance of case 2 in that it is the second verified³instance of death caused by hemorrhagic encephalitis following the administration of arsphenamine in a nonsyphilitic patient,⁴our attention was drawn to the striking character of the lesion found at postmortem examination. The similarity of the terminal lesion in the two cases engrafted on a basic pathologic process, decidedly dissimilar in the two instances, demanded thorough investigation and evaluation, which led us to this study, in the course of which several questions were raised: 1. Is the term "arsphenamine