Meningitis during gold therapy.

Abstract

The frequency of toxic reactions to gold therapy is well known and has been stressed in many reports. Dermatologic, renal, gastrointestinal, hepatic or hematopoietic reactions have been reported in as high as 77 per cent of cases of rheumatoid arthritis treated with gold. 1 Complications involving the nervous system are perhaps the rarest of all. In 900 patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with gold, Hartfall and his associates 2 found toxic reactions in 41.9 per cent but none involving the nervous system. Similar findings have been reported in other large series, and Lescher 3 stated that complications involving the nervous system are the rarest of all accidents resulting from chrysotherapy. In an exhaustive review of the toxic effects of gold, Sundelin 4 reported cases with central and peripheral nervous system manifestations. Cerebral symptoms ranged from simple depressions to frank psychoses. He also reported local nerve palsies, herpes zoster and polyneuritis.