LUDWIG'S ANGINA

Abstract

The clinical condition to be considered here was frequently cited briefly in descriptions of cases by ancient Greek physicians. Hippocrates, the great master physician of the fourth century B. C., made many references to this condition. Aretaeus, a distinguished contemporary of Galen, living in the second and third centuries A. D., Galen, Paulus of Aegina, Wells (1809) and Gregory (1822) also have referred to this condition. However, in 1836 and 1837 many articles began to appear in medical literature the subject of which was a brawny infection of the cellular tissues of the neck. Various names were given to the disease, such as cynanche cellularis maligna and morbus strangulatorius. The leader of the group of physicians reporting on this and the author of the first article was Wilhelm Friedrich Von Ludwig, of Stuttgart, personal physician to the King of Wurttemberg. His description of the disease in 1836 as a gangrenous