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In patients maintained on long-term anticoagulant therapy the prevention and management of bleeding after dental surgery frequently poses a vexing problem. Results of experience with the intravenous and oral administration of estrogens in 9 such patients are here set forth, and 3 case histories are given in some detail. In most cases the preparation for dental surgery included stopping the oral administration of the anticoagulant for several days and increasing the dose of orally administered estrogen, if the patient had been taking it. Conjugated equine estrogens were administered half an hour before the extraction and given again several hours after.

The development of unexplained thrombophlebitis and puzzling systemic disorders within one to several years after elective vasectomy is reported. The systemic features included prolonged fever, generalized lymph node enlargement, various skin eruptions, arthropathy, recurrent infections, glomerulonephritis, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, neuropsychiatric features, increased BSP retention, an elevated level of circulating globulins, and a biologic false‐positive serologic reaction. The frequency of concomitant severe reactive hypoglycemia due to diabetogenic hyperinsulinism in these patients also was noteworthy. The possible pathogenetic mechanisms are discussed, including induced hormonal imbalances, autosensitization to testicular nucleoproteins, and altered blood coagulation in the hyperinsulinized‐diabetic state.

Increased attention has been directed to mucormycosis over the past decade by both clinicians and pathologists. In large measure, this is attributed to the survival of patients having a variety of disorders that tend to lower host resistance or to enhance invasiveness of fungi belonging to 1 of 3 usually saprophytic genera of the family Mucoraceae (Mucor, Rhizopus, Absidia). Of 50 previously reported patients with mucormycosis, 25 were diabetics (most of whom had been severely acidotic) and 13 suffered from leukemia or lymphoma.1,2 Other predisposing disorders include myeloma, carcinoma, anemia, body burns, glomerulonephritis, acute tubular necrosis, hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, ionizing radiation, and the administration of antibiotics, steroids, or folic acid antagonists in large doses or over prolonged periods.The present case report cites a young diabetic with recurrent severe acidosis in whom a large necrotic area of the skin was shown histologically to be due to such fungal

THE SUCCESSFUL treatment of acute polyneuritis due to various known diseases and of the acute polyneuritis of unknown etiology, known as the Guillain-Barré syndrome, has been effectively enhanced by the use of cortisone and corticotropin. The use of these agents has resulted in dramatic and life-saving improvement, but it is still somewhat controversial. Some feel that their prolonged use may break through important antibacterial and antiviral immunologic defenses. The therapeutic problem is further increased when the etiology is obscure. This is particularly so if one is confronted with such a symptom-complex, with or without bulbar involvement, during the poliomyelitis season, when the latter cannot be definitely ruled out—even in the presence of an acellular spinal fluid.I have recently encountered two patients with a diphtheritic or pseudodiphtheritic polyneuritis in whom the hormones were employed, primarily because of their progressively deteriorating states. Since I have been unable to find any pertinent