THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE GOLD AND ARSENIC POISONING

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Abstract
The treatment of acute poisoning due to gold and arsenic compounds with BAL (2,3-dimercaptopropanol, British Anti-Lewisite), has given successful results. Although gold has been acclaimed the best single therapeutic substance in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis,1 its use heretofore has been limited largely to a few rheumatologists and clinics having wide experience in chrysotherapy. This rather strict limitation of the use of gold is due to the occasional unpredictable and devastating symptoms of toxicity that appear when gold products are administered by inexperienced physicians. In our series of approximately 750 courses of gold injections,2 the untoward reactions which were encountered, largely in our earlier use of gold, included generalized pruritus, seborrheic dermatitis, urticaria, purpura, secondary anemia, exfoliative dermatitis, stomatitis, thrombopenic purpura, agranulocytosis, jaundice, gastroenteritis and conjunctivitis. Among additional toxic manifestations reported by others are peripheral neuritis, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, nephritis and acute yellow atrophy of the liver. Toxic