CHEMOTHERAPY VERSUS COMBINED CHEMOTHERAPY AND SERUM

Abstract

The universal acceptance of the value of sulfonamide therapy in pneumonia has left the role of serum as the major current problem in the treatment of this disease. Will the use of serum combined with drug reduce still further the fatality rate? Will it cause a more rapid subsidence of the acute infectious process? These problems have been studied at Bellevue Hospital by using the alternate case method. Since February 1939, all pneumonia patients entering the wards of the First, Second and Fourth medical divisions have been alternated within the pneumococcus types between sulfonamide therapy alone and combined drug and serum therapy. In the present study we are reporting the results up to Jan. 1, 1941 in a series comprising 607 patients thus alternated. <h3>METHOD</h3> As soon as the clinical diagnosis of pneumonia was made, samples of blood and sputum were collected for bacteriologic study. The patient was then immediately