The X-Ray Treatment of Gonorrheal Complications in Males

Abstract

There is little that is definite in the literature on the therapeutic value of X-radiation in gonorrheal complications. Wetterer, 1921, was probably the first to treat this subject in any comprehensive manner (1). His results in the inflammatory complications of gonorrhea—epididymitis, prostatitis, adenitis, etc.—were encouraging indeed, especially when treatment was instituted at an early date. His observations, however, were purely clinical, there being no mention made of control groups or attempt to follow up the patients after treatment to determine recurrence of the complaints or ailments. Later workers, Fried (2), 1925, Grynkraut (3), 1926, Sordella (4), 1926, Guhrauer (5), 1927, Martenstein (6), 1927, Gunsberger (7), 1928, Samek (8), 1930, and Klovekorn (9), 1930, corroborated in the main Wetterer's findings, using, however, much smaller doses, as is the modern trend generally. These observations, too, lack the scientific certainty that control groups and a follow-up system assure. A review, then, ...