Oral sepsis as a cause of "septic gastritis," "toxic neuritis" and other septic conditions : with illustrated cases / by William Hunter.

  • Hunter, William.
Date:
1901
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Oral sepsis as a cause of "septic gastritis," "toxic neuritis" and other septic conditions : with illustrated cases / by William Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    marked at the outset as they were at the termination, the general toxic effects would not have been so marked. They would have included the ordinary effects of blood-poisoning— namely, lymphangitis and high fever. These statements as to the character and severity of the general effects may be illustrated by the following cases. (jdse 7.—A lady who for several years had sufiered from remarkable periodic attacks of fever and rashes, with marked nervous disturbance. These attacks had come on at regular intervals for two or three years, and I was called to see her when she had one of her rashes. I found she had a typical blotchy septic rash over the legs, arms, and body. Her history was that about a month or two previously her dental surgeon, having had his attention drawn to it by the first case I have described, had insisted on removing a tooth-plate from her upper jaw, ivhich had partly grown into the upper jaw ^ and had been there for several years. Her condition was one of profound sepsis. Her periodic rashes, gastritis, and nervous disturbances were the acute manifestations of that. They had always been regarded as manifestations of gout. Case 8.—A youth who had inflammation of his gums set up by with- drawal of a tooth. Extensive stomatitis set in, and spread from point to point until the teeth became loose and necrotic. Half the upper jaw be- came completely necrosed, and there was a foul gangrenous condition of the whole of the superior maxilla, an acute and profound septiccemia, hcBmor- rhagic nephritis^ and death. This case still further illustrates the extra- ordinarily virulent character of the infection associated with diseased teeth. Case 9.—I have now to point out that in connection with this dental caries you may have these pyogenic effects latent. Such a case was that of a man who presented no dental history during life, so far as could be ascertained. He died of pernicious anjemia. Post mortem, the con- dition found was the following. The teeth were necrosed in their sockets, which presented a sodden appearance, and in this particular case at the bottom of one of them was an alveolar abscess the size of a small hazel nut, leading by a sinus to the necrosed tooth. In connection with another tooth there was a smaller pus centre. Further, there was suppuration in the ethmoidal sinuses on the left side. Of the existence of this profoundly septic condition there was not, be it noted, the slightest symptom, or the slightest suspicion, during life. The case is especially interesting, fully confirming as it does my recent observations and conclusiors regarding the infective (partly septic) nature of pernicious anaemia, and the importance of oral sepsis in relation to it.