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Source - Therapeutic Gazette, a Monthly Journal of General, Special, and Physiological Therapeutics, p. 782, by H. A. HARE, M.D. and EDWARD MARTIN, M.D. 1900
DILLER (Pennsylvania MedicalJournal, vol. vi, No. 2,1900), basing his conclusions upon a careful study of the subject and an unusual personal experience, states the diagnosis of a brain tumor was made in only fifteen of the seventeen cases reported; in two cases the tumors were found post mortem, although they were not diagnosed during life.
The conditions most resembling brain tumor are cerebral syphilis, Bright's disease, anemia, meningitis, and cerebral abscess, and the possibility of these diseases should be considered in making the diagnosis.
In the cases seen by the author, with the exception of one which was in a dying condition when he first came under observation, the medical treatment consisted in the administration of large doses of potassium iodide that is, 300 to 400 grains daily. In all cases where syphilis was suspected mercury was also given, for a time at least, on alternate weeks.
By way of symptomatic treatment, bromides, caffeine, acetanilid, electricity, and tonics were employed.
In three of the seven cases thus treated and under the author's direct control, no appreciable results were noted. In three cases there was very marked improvement, which was maintained in one instance for nearly six years. The author therefore holds that potassium iodide treatment markedly relieves symptoms in some cases of brain tumor; that probably in a few cases it effects a partial absorption, the remainder then remaining latent for years. There is reason to believe that even non-syphilitic tumors
may be favorably acted upon. This treatment should cover a period of at least two months.
