THE HYPODERMIC USE OF CHAULMOOGRA OIL IN LEPROSY

Abstract

Of the remedies used in the treatment of leprosy, chaulmoogra oil has given the most constant results. Its use by mouth, however, has been very difficult, since it induces such nausea that patients cannot bear prolonged treatment by that method. Those patients who can take the oil over a long period of time have invariably shown some improvement. In 1914 Heiser 1 reported exceptionally good results in a series of cases treated at the Leper Colony at Culion, P. I., with hypodermic injections of a chaulmoogra oil formula. Camphorated olive oil and resorcin were added to the chaulmoogra oil. No bad effects on the patients thus treated were noted, the oil being absorbed into the system without even local irritation. In May, 1916, this treatment was begun in a series of fourteen cases in a leper settlement outside the Hoi How city wall. Later seven more cases were added. These