GONOCOCCIC PERITONITIS OF THE UPPER PART OF THE ABDOMEN IN YOUNG WOMEN: (Phrenic Reaction, or Subcostal Syndrome of Stajano; Fitz-Hugh—Curtis Syndrome) Report of Cases of Three Patients Treated Successfully with Penicillin and a Summary of the Literature

PERITONITIS of the upper part of the abdomen in young women occurring during the course of gonorrhea was first described as a definite syndrome in 1919 by Carlos Stajano, in a paper read before the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Montevideo, Uruguay. In his subsequent publications 1 the clinical features of the acute stage of the disease were completely and graphically depicted. Little information of a clinical nature has been added since. Unfortunately, none of his work, printed in Spanish and French, was widely circulated in the United States. Hence it was not until 1930 that Curtis 2 called attention to the frequent coexistence of gonococcic salpingitis and "violin string" adhesions between the anterior surface of the liver and the anterior abdominal wall discovered at operation—conditions indicating, presumably, a chronic, healing or healed perihepatitis. Fitz-Hugh, in 1934, 3 described 3 cases in the acute stage, including 1 in which