W. Whitaker
Feb 1, 1930
Citations
0
Influential Citations
3
Citations
Journal
Archives of Disease in Childhood
Abstract
Various methods and drugs have been used in the treatment of chorea minor in children; among them are sodium salicylate, liquor arsenicalis, arsphenamine, bromides, milk injections, magnesium sulphate, thvroid extract, luminal, chloretone, and adrenalin subcarbonate. Medical literature reveals a percentage of good results from each of them, but since chorea is a more or less self-limited disease, a certain amount of scepticism accompanies any claim of cure. One of the more recent and judging from the favourable foreign reports, most successful modes of therapy is nirvanol, a hypnotic which was first introduced for the treatment of chorea by Freda Roeder, in 1919. Poynton and Schlesinger2 reported favourable results in six cases during 1929. Apparently these are the first to be reported in English literature, though Cunningham3 at the Strong Memorial Hospital at Rochester, New York, treated about a dozen cases of chorea in 1928 with favourable results. These, to date he has not published. During the past few months (April to September 1929) it has been the writer's good fortune to treat eleven cases of chorea with nirvanol. These were in the wards of the East London Hospital for Children under the care of Drs. Geoffrey Bourne, Batten, Simpson, and Chodak Gregory, to whom I am indebted for permission to publish them. The favourable results in these cases, and the sparse English literature on the subject, are the reasons for their publication. It is also hoped that others will be stimulated to investigate further this mode of therapy. Nirvanol is a white tasteless powder which is chemically phenylethylhydantoin having the formula: C6H5 /CO.NH