Martland1 recently reported 19 fatal cases of the Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, characterized by cyanosis, purpura, petechiae and bilateral gross hemorrhages in the adrenal glands, and by the presence of meningococci in the blood, without gross meningitis. Attempts to overcome the profound meningococcemia in 5 the disease. Martland suggests that the usefulness of penicillin in the treatment of patients with fulminant meningococcemia is still a matter of conjecture.
We wish to report briefly regarding a boy of 8 years admitted to the hospital seemingly near death, with overwhelming meningococcemia, who of the patients by intravenous injections of solutions of sulfadiazine and dextrose were futile and made no apparent impression on the course of was treated with sulfadiazine intravenously and by mouth for two days without result and then with penicillin intravenously and intramuscularly with complete success.
REPORT OF A CASE
R. C., a white boy born Sept. 10, 1935, was admitted