STREPTOKINASE AND STREPTODORNASE IN THE TREATMENT OF DIABETIC GANGRENE

Abstract

GANGRENE is one of the commonest and most serious complications of diabetes mellitus. Eliason¹ reported that 13 per cent of 1,305 diabetics admitted to the Philadelphia General Hospital from 1930 to 1933 had gangrene requiring surgical treatment. In reviewing 6,000 cases, John² found that postoperative deaths including operations for gangrene constituted the third most frequent cause of demise among diabetics. Joslin³ stated that gangrene is responsible for 5 to 8 per cent of all deaths in diabetic persons. When it is recalled that there are at least 1,000,000 diabetics in this country, the importance of diabetic gangrene is apparent. Furthermore, with the increasing age of the general population, diabetes mellitus and its complications will perhaps be even greater medical problems in the future. Gangrene is the local death of tissue following obstruction of the circulation to that part. This diabetic complication is caused by arteriosclerosis on which