HERXHEIMER REACTIONS IN PENICILLIN TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS IN PREGNANCY

SINCE October 1943 treatment with sodium penicillin has been carried out in a total of 182 cases of pregnancy complicated by early syphilis at the Cleveland City Hospital and the University Hospitals. Although total doses of penicillin increased as time went on from 60,000 to 9,600,000 units, in the bulk of the cases (86 per cent) at least 2,400,000 units were given in divided doses every three hours for from sixty to one hundred and twenty injections. The results of treatment are measured in terms of the efficacy of penicillin in protecting the fetus or, better, in curing the fetus of the maternal infection.In this study there were 5 cases of primary syphilis, 63 cases of secondary syphilis and 114 cases of early latent syphilis. Excluded were all cases of patients thought to have had adequate treatment who were re-treated for protection of the fetus, and all late latent