Idiopathic Gangrene of the Scrotum

on ' Regeneration of the scrotum' published in the Lancet, April 14, 1945. A Muslim, aged 30 years, was admitted to the hospital for pain in the scrotum. He had noticed pain and a patch of redness in the scrotum on waking up one morning, and applied a poultice. Next day the patch sloughed out. leaving bare the corresponding area of the testes. The condition was growing rapidly worse and the patient came to the hospital on the third day. On admission, the patient was dyspnceic and restless and complained of intense pain in the scrotal region. Temperature 102?F., pulse 110 and respiration 25. Locally, except a little fringe at the base of the penis, the whole of the scrotum had sloughed out and was dangling en masse leaving both the testes bare. The discharge from the wound was extremely foetid. The inguinal glands on both sides were enlarged and threatening to suppurate. There was no difficulty in micturition and the other systems were normal. Facilities for bacteriological examination of the pus not being available, the condition was treated on the assumption that.-it was gangrene of the scrotum. Removal, of the slough, frequent irrigation of the wound with warm boric