THE standard treatment of acute pharyngeal infections—frequent irrigations with hot saline solution in cases of acute tonsillitis or pharyngitis, and hydrogen peroxide gargles and applications of sodium perborate in cases of ulcerative tonsillitis associated with Vincent's micro-organisms—often presents problems in nursing and administration. In view of the high incidence of pharyngeal infections among military personnel, therapy that offers simplification of management and improvement of results in comparison with the methods in common use deserves consideration.
Acute pharyngeal and tonsillar infections are inflammatory processes largely confined to surfaces. Accordingly, it appeared worth while to us to treat a series of patients for these conditions by local applications of sulfanilamide powder. It was our intention to determine whether such therapy offered greater advantages for military personnel than the standard remedies.
In discussing the local use of sulfonamide compounds, Spink1 stated:
The chief virtue of local therapy is that it provides much higher