Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-30
THOSE FOCAL INFECTIONS
By H. AddingtOn Bruce
IMPRESSIVE evidence of the great

IMPRESSIVE evidence of the great variety
| of human ills that may result from So
49, called focal infections of the teeth, tom
sils, nose and sinuses of the face is presented
by a Boston physician, DR.. oliver Ames
Lothrop, in a paper contributed to the Bos-
ton Medical and Surgical Journal. In the
hope of assisting thereby to the alienation
of suffering, 1 gladly give additional publicity
to DR.. LothEOp's findings.
They are based in the main on the eXpe
rience Of persons long b -'dened With disease
symptoms that remained unrelieVed because,
until they consulted DR.. Lothrop, there had
been no suspicion that focal infection might
have something to do with their troubles
And certainly in several instances it is not
surprising that the possibility of focal infec-
ton was overlooked.
DR.. Lothrop tells, for example of a man
of sixty, who, for nearly forty years, had
been hard of hearing. There were times
when he was stone deaf. 1t was during one
of these times that examinations by X-ray
and transilIumination showed that both antra
the large sinuses of the cheeks-were seats
of infection.
Treatment by drainage md irrigation of
the antra was at once begun, ard Immediately
an improvement of the hearing set in. Sew
eraI years have passed and there has been
no return of the deafness of forty years
standing.
In another case middle-aged man was
troubled, not by deafness, but by chronic
eruption of the skin. This was aggravated
by the eating of certain foods, notably lobster
But abstention from such foods only miti-
gated the eruption instead of completely
clearing it away.
No remedies gave more than temporary
relief until, it being found that the patients
tonSls were in poor condition, an operation
was performed for their removal. within
twenty-four hours after the removal of his
tonsils," DR.. Lothrop reports, his skin was
all cleared up, and has remained so for over
a year" Also the once offending foods Of
fend no longer
woman, blind in the left eye for more
than year, regained her vision following an
operation for the removal of pus from an
infected frontal sinus. In two other cases
failing eyesight was restored through, in one
case a tonsil operation, and in the second,
drainage of an infected antrul..
"Neurasthenia. characterized by chilly
sensations fatigue, obscure aches and palms,
and general nervousness, was overcome IN
the case of one woman by extraction OF teeth
having APPEAL assesses. Even more spec
tacular were the results obtained through
tonsllectomy performed on a woman twenty
two~years old.
For a long period this young woman had
been afflicted with epieptic attacks, occurring
both by day and by night. Her general
health had failed markedly, and altogether
the outlook for her was dismal in the e1-
IRENE.
The discovery that her tonsils were badly
affected paved the way for a remarkable
cure. No sooner were they removed than
her health began to improve, and to the
time of Dr. Lothrop's report she had had
only one slight attack of epilepsy.
Of course, it should be clearly understood
that the ills thus relieved are probably due
to focal infection in only exceptlonal cases;
But it is Just as important to bear in mind
that, as Dr.. Lothrop's paper emphasizes, focal
infection NAV occasionally gi@ rise to them.
When focal infection is their cause, the one
sure hope of lasting cure il the discovery
and removal Of the infection.
Copyright, 1929