THE TREATMENT OF AGRANULOCYTOSIS WITH PENICILLIN

Abstract

Patients with agranulocytosis do not die from the suppression of their bone marrow but from the bacterial invasion which commonly develops in the absence of granulocytes.¹ In a body robbed of its leukocytic defenses an overwhelming sepsis may occur. In such cases minor lesions of the skin and mucous membrane quickly spread and bacteria invade the blood stream. The toxemia from this resulting sepsis depresses still more the function of the bone marrow and may prevent spontaneous recovery. Pneumonia and other terminal infectious lesions precede death. The recent development of sulfonamides and penicillin has improved greatly the treatment and prognosis of agranulocytosis. Prior to 1942 physicians attempted chiefly to stimulate the activity of bone marrow by such leukopoietic agents as pentose nucleotide, yellow bone marrow, liver extract and blood transfusions. But these remedies too frequently proved inadequate and the mortality rate in cases of agranulocytosis was high. A new