Tetrabromphenolphthalein Injection as an Office Procedure

Abstract

We first took up the tetrabromphenol-phthalein method of visualizing the gall bladder a few weeks after the initial report of Graham and Cole in February, 1924. Our work is so arranged that if the method was to be of value to us it would have to be adapted to office use, and consequently it was with some misgivings that we reviewed the reports of reactions then following almost without exception the injection of the calcium salt. However, after a few experimental cases had been run through at the City Hospital, we began to make the injections in the office, in cases in which, in spite of definite clinical grounds for suspicion of gall-bladder pathology, simple films of the region had failed to show any characteristic shadows. As soon as the sodium salt became available we changed to that preparation, which we have used since, and when it began to be sold in ampules we discarded the bulk salt and used a fresh ampule for each injection. We have had altogether fifty-four cases. This number is so small as com...