Diagnosis and Treatment of Gonorrheal Septicemia and Gonorrheal Endocarditis

A discussion of gonorrheal endocarditis and gonococcemia seems timely for three reasons: There is increased interest in the disease; the large number of recent papers on the subject have made physicians aware that the condition is by no means uncommon. It has been said to comprise 11.6 per cent of all cases of bacterial endocarditis,1and one report stated that of cases of acute endocarditis studied at autopsy 26 per cent were of gonococcic origin.2 At present the diagnosis is either missed or not made until the disease, the mortality of which is extremely high, has been rampant for several weeks. It may be well to call attention to certain aids in diagnosis in the hope that the physician may at least suspect the presence of the condition before a blood culture positive for gonococci is obtained. The introduction of fever therapy and the use of sulfanilamide and its derivatives