THE SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF ESSENTIAL THROMBOPENIA WITH HEMORRHAGE BY ROENTGEN RAYS

Stephan,¹ only four years after Frank's² description and separation of thrombopenic purpura as a distinct entity, resorted to roentgen treatments over the spleen and reported cures of two "fulminating" cases with this method. From this time there have been numerous reports of single cases or small series by irradiation. While some of the reported results have been favorable,³ there have been some reports, as of Pancoast and his co-workers,⁴ that have failed to confirm Stephan's enthusiastic and completely satisfactory pioneer efforts. Because of this, irradiation of the spleen is not universally accepted as being worth while and in the last few years seems to have fallen into disuse. This is strikingly shown in the series of Jones and Tocantins.⁵ In their series of fifty-three patients only one was treated with x-rays. Fowler⁶ in a recent review of 160 cases casually mentions x-rays as follows: