IRRADIATION OF DISEASED TONSILS


The point of the trocar is so fine and the seed so small that very little trauma is done to the tonsil. The amount of radiation can be measured with accuracy and the applicators located with such exactness as to insure equal and complete distribution throughout the tissues. Only one treatment is necessary, a fact much appreciated by the patient. Systemic reactions of any kind never occur.


This article describes a new method of treating tonsillar hypertrophies by means of removable platinum radon seeds, giving detailed reports of a series of cases where tonsillectomy was for different reasons contraindicated, and illustrating the application of the technique to varying pathological conditions.

To carry out the application of the seeds, a new implanter is used which is illustrated and described in the article.

As the pain of implantation and removal is practically nil, at no time is any anesthetic required, there is no need of hospitalization, nor disability of any kind. The total absence of shock is a great advantage in inoperable cases.

By means of the implanter the operator is able to place one removable radon seed in the center of a tonsil so that radiation is distributed equally throughout. The radon seed used is filtered by 0.3 mm. of platinum. This filtration cuts off the caustic beta rays thus doing away with all possibility of burning with consequent necrosis and sloughing.

When the instrument is withdrawn after implantation the seed is left embedded in the tonsil with a 2 cm. length of thread protruding from the portal of entry. This short thread does not in any way inconvenience then patient, nor cause the slightest interference with function. At the end of four days the seeds are easily removed by grasping the thread with forceps.

The point of the trocar is so fine and the seed so small that very little trauma is done to the tonsil.

The amount of radiation can be measured with accuracy and the applicators located with such exactness as to insure equal and complete distribution throughout the tissues. Only one treatment is necessary, a fact much appreciated by the patient. Systemic reactions of any kind never occur. The attached thread, making the seed easily removable when its period of service is over, does away with an objectionable foreign body being left in the tissues- a drawback to the bare tube method. The author concludes that in the implantation of removable platinum radon seeds we have at present an adequate substitute for tonsillectomy in those cases where surgery is, for any reason, contraindicated.

The technique and method described in the article have been developed by DR. Joseph Muir of New York. J. Coleman Scal, M. D., Medical Journal and Record, for December 1, 1926.

J. Scal Coleman