Dermatitis Medicamentosa Due to Antipyrine

During the period beginning July 1, 1949, and ending May 1, 1956, 132 patients were admitted to the dermatological wards of Charity Hospital of Louisiana at New Orleans with the diagnosis of dermatitis medicamentosa. Seventy, slightly more than half, were Negroes. Included in these 132 cases were 27 cases, all in Negroes, in which the eruption and other symptoms were clearly attributable to the use of a cold preparation manufactured under the name of 666 and variously known locally as the three sixes, the three 6's, and six-sixty-six. An analysis of these 27 cases, supplemented by another case, also in a Negro, observed at the Veterans Hospital in New Orleans, is the purpose of this thesis. Before this analysis is undertaken, however, some description of the background and environment in which they arose may be helpful. It is doubtful that a hospital similar to Charity Hospital