Chronic Roentgen and Radium Dermatitis

This is an analysis of 259 cases of chronic radiodermatitis seen in the Section on Dermatology and Syphilology at the Mayo Clinic in the period from 1930 to 1934 inclusive. Only cases of late injury, as determined by the clinical signs, were chosen, all cases of immediate or early injury from radium or roentgen therapy being excluded. A distinction is not made in this study between patients who received but one massive dose of roentgen rays or radium and those whose roentgen dermatitis followed smaller doses or repeated exposures such as occurred, for example, in physicians. Many of the patients in this series came to the clinic primarily because of the injury to the skin; in other cases the cutaneous condition was of minor importance or of no concern to the patient. This study therefore includes patients with all degrees of chronic radiodermatitis and is not limited to those with