X-RAY TREATMENT OF MALIGNANT EXOPHTHALMOS: A REPORT ON 28 PATIENTS*

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
TWO years have elapsed since the author reported some success in the treatment of 10 patients with “malignant exophthalmos” by irradiation of the pituitary (1). It was emphasized that the x-ray ports overlapped some extraocular soft tissue and that the resultant radiation to extraocular tissues might conceivably account for some or all of the beneficial effects observed, through decreasing the volume of these tissues. At least two articles have appeared since this publication confirming the effectiveness of x-ray therapy directed to the region of the orbits (2) and the pituitary (3) in 7 and 8 patients, respectively. We have now treated 18 more patients and have continued to follow those previously treated. When a larger number of patients with the disease have received this form of therapy and have been meticulously followed for a sufficiently long period of time, a better estimate may be made of the effectiveness of this procedure. More important, correlation of response may be made with other features of malignant exophthalmos, so that candidates for x-ray therapy may be selected more intelligently. Although our observations at present are based on only 28 patients so treated, the accumulated data suggest answers to these problems that might warrant consideration by others who encounter such patients in practice.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: