Sporotrichosis Successfully Treated With Stilbamidine

SPOROTRICHOSIS has been treated successfully with the iodides for many years. Nevertheless, there are occasional patients with this disease who are resistant to iodide therapy. The report of Elson¹in 1945 showing that Propamidine, one of the aromatic diamidines, exhibits in vitro antifungal activity opened up an entirely new group of chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of the deep mycotic infections. One of the members of this diamidine group, stilbamidine (4,4′-stilbenedicarboxyamidine), is now being used extensively in the treatment of North American blastomycosis* and has also been successfully used in actinomycosis.⁵Since sporotrichosis has apparently never been treated with stilbamidine, it was decided to determine the in vivo effect of this fungicidal agent. REPORT OF A CASE W. E., an 18-year-old white male farmer, was referred to the dermatology department of the University Hospital on June 26, 1953, because of an ulcer of the distal end of the