ACUTE ABSCESS OF THE THROAT IN CHILDHOOD

This report deals with 250 cases of true and potential, or abortive, abscesses in the throats of children under 14 years of age observed in the wards of the Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, over a period of ten years ended Dec. 31, 1940. In 181 of these cases there was frank suppuration, as shown by spontaneous rupture or surgical drainage. In the remaining 69 a localized inflammatory lesion, apparently differing in no way from the lesions in the early stages of the other group, subsided without evident pus formation for one reason or another. Nearly all of these cases were treated in the pediatric service exclusively except when laryngologic help seemed indicated as in any analogous situation. This rather unusual procedure requires some justification, at least an explanation. At the Children's Memorial Hospital, except for one resident in pathology, all the house staff are future pediatricians or general practitioners and