LOCAL USE OF SULFANILAMIDE IN TONSILLECTOMIES

Abstract

Attention was first directed to the local use of the sulfonamide compounds in tonsillectomies after the observation that surgical wounds in which the drugs were employed locally as a therapeutic agent, as in the treatment of osteomyelitis, remained almost free of postoperative oozing. As reported by Cunningham,¹the sulfonamide drugs used locally after tonsillectomy have a proved hemostatic action. It was felt that sulfanilamide was the drug of choice in the present experiments, as locally it produces a minimal foreign body reaction with the attendant extravasation of serum and delayed healing of the wound. This drug also persists in the wound for the shortest period of all the sulfonamide compounds, from only six to twenty-four hours, penetrating to a tissue depth of less than 3 mm.,²but can be detected chemically for eleven days. Sulfanilamide also is primarily specific for the hemolytic streptococcus, the chief offender in postoperative tonsillar infections,