TREATMENT.—The palliative treatment of chorea occurring in pregnancy is unsatisfactory in the extreme. All the specifics of greater or less value in the non-gravid state are frequently without influence during gestation. The diet must be nutritious and easily digestible. Large doses of iron and quinine are indicated. As in other convulsive disorders, during the paroxysms chief reliance is placed upon anæsthetics, subcutaneous injections of morphine, potassium bromide, and chloral. Charcot recommends the exhibition of large doses of bromide of potassium through a considerable period of time. Clifford Albutt extols succus conii. In over one-half the recorded cases the most judicious combinations of hygienic and medical therapeutic resources have proved of no avail. In view of the prognosis, the induction of premature labor is usually indicated, in the interest of both the mother and child, at an early stage of the disease. Sometimes the question of the artificial induction of abortion comes up for consideration. In view of the grave cerebral and spinal lesions which may result from the affection, the mother is justly entitled to the benefit of the doubt. It may not be amiss to add that this indication for the induction of abortion is not generally recognized.
EPILEPSY.
Epilepsy is usually an accidental complication of pregnancy. Spiegelberg29 is responsible for the observation that in chronic epilepsy pregnancy sometimes modifies the course of the affection in a favorable manner. The seizures occur less frequently and are not so violent in character. Acute epilepsy may be developed as the result of pregnancy when a latent predisposition, inherited or acquired, exists. The epileptogenous zone in acute epilepsy comprehends the distribution of the ischiatic nerve. Acute epilepsy disappears with the cessation of pregnancy, but is apt to recur with succeeding gestations.
29 Lehrb. d. Geburtshülfe, 1882, p. 241.
The occurrence of acute or chronic epilepsy during pregnancy is of great diagnostic interest from the resemblance of the epileptic seizures to the convulsions produced by renal inadequacy. The urine secreted during or after an epileptic fit is usually free from albumen. In the severest forms of puerperal eclampsia the urine may also be entirely free from albumen and tube-casts. In the ultimate stages of amyloid degeneration30 and atrophy of the kidney, the most formidable forms of Bright's disease, albumen may not appear in the urine.
30 Carl Braun, Lehrb. d. g. Gynaek., 1881, p. 827.
The DIAGNOSIS is usually cleared up by the history of the case and the course of the affection.
The PROGNOSIS with reference to mother and child is favorable. Epilepsy rarely leads to the premature interruption of pregnancy.
The TREATMENT is the same as in the non-gravid state.
Disorders of the Special Senses.