THE EFFECT OF TREATMENT AND ERADICATION OF FOCI OF INFECTION IN CHRONIC ARTHRITIS (FOCAL INFECTION)

¹ The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, State University of Iowa

Great emphasis has been placed upon the eradication of foci of infection in the treatment of this series of chronic arthritis cases. The results are at least twenty-five per cent. better than in a similar group in which foci attention was not stressed.

The eradication of foci of infection is of primary importance in children particularly. The results here are most convincing, probably because anaphylaxis is more marked in them. In adults suffering from the atrophic type of chronic arthritis, the beneficial results from foci attention will depend upon the age of the patient and the duration of the disease. The interrelation of foci of infection and chronic atrophic arthritis is almost self evident in many instances. It has been observed, in this clinic, that the focus eradication—for instance, where a focus had caused pain in an apparently quiescent contracted arthritic knee that was undergoing correction by the turnbuckle-cast method—resulted in the cessation of pain and the completion of the correction that would otherwise have been indefinitely postponed or even prohibited.

Foci attention in the hypertrophic types did not materially influence the end results.

Certain foci situations have been emphasized.

Rationalization in the treatment of chronic arthritis demands that the entire field of medical and associated sciences be enlisted.

The orthopaedic aspects of the treatment of chronic arthritis remain as yet of primary importance, but the value of foci attention as one of the associated therapeutic measures should be recognized.

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