Treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum with intramuscular injections of husband's blood

Abstract

Hyperemesis gravidarum may vary from a moderately annoying condition to a very serious one in which it becomes imperative to interrupt pregnancy to insure the safety of the mother. Treatment is usually moderately effective, yet the occasional case arises in which the accepted methods of treatment fail. The purpose of this presentation is to present a case which was almost completely relieved of nausea for the first thirty-six weeks of gestation by means of intramuscular injections of the husband's blood, after various other methods of treatment in seven previous pregnancies had failed to control it. The result was striking and no other treatment was instituted or necessary. It is hoped that this report will stimulate further investigations to determine the active factor.The stimulus for the trial of this method was twofold: (1) The fact that each time after intercourse at night the patient awakened in the morning with a headache similar to that which she experienced from eating certain foods to which she was sensitive, and this fact led to the suspicion that she might be sensitive to all the tissues of her husband. It was thought that the developing tissues of the fetus following the husband's characteristics also might be incompatible with the mother and that the severe hyperemesis might be a response to this tissue incompatibility. The fact that the patient was a universal donor was also suggestive, although this has not been borne out by subsequent cases. It was not beyond the realm of possibility that intramuscular injections of the husband's blood might stimulate the formation of products that would counteract this “tissue sensitivity.” (2) The fact that a report from Dr. L. C. Purvis1 of Westboro, Ontario, in which he stated that he had treated 15 cases of pernicious vomiting of pregnancy with injections of the husband's blood. He used three injections of blood at intervals of three days, the first two being 5 c.c. each and the third being 10 c.c. He said the vomiting ceased in every instance.