TUBING AS A CAUSE OF REACTION TO INTRAVENOUS INJECTION, ESPECIALLY OF ARSPHENAMIN

Abstract

During the last two years we have been investigating the cause of an arsphenamin reaction observed on the service of the Section on Dermatology and Syphilology. This reaction, characterized by a chill with a sharp rise in temperature coming on from thirty minutes to an hour after intravenous injection, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pain in the head and back and varying degrees of prostration, would appear in crops, so to speak, and then disappear for a considerable period, only to recur in the very midst of what seemed a period of flawless technical accuracy. Repeated efforts to identify a cause in the water or the chemicals employed in the preparation of arsphenamin for injection yielded nothing definite. The first clue to the actual cause was afforded by the appearance of a series of reactions, Jan. 6, 1919, following the transfer of the hospital and operating room service of the