Granulated Wounds Treated with Sunlight

The attention of physicians has repeatedly been called to the action of sunlight on wounds of all kinds. Dr. C. Haeberlin has recently treated a number of large granulating wounds with sunlight as follows: the wound is exposed to the sun, so that the rays fall perpendicularly. The position of the patient was changed accordingly from time to time. It was sufficient to have the patient lie in the sun for from two to three hours a day, with the head protected, generally the hours from nine to twelve a. m. were used. The effect is an acceleration of the healing process. Granulations, which have been moist and irregular, become dry, shining and smooth; the epithelium spreads visibly.

Dr. H. has treated in the above way simple traumatic wounds, wounds after operations of all kinds, e. g. after phlegmon, a broad drainage canal resulting from purulent appendicitis, etc. In one case of complicated trauma of the knee joint the granulating wound, which remained after the capsule wound had closed became infected with the pyocyaneus coccus. Iodoform and hydrogen peroxide were used without effect; the wound produced large quantities of greenishblue pus; two exposures to the sun of two hours each were sufficient to have the infection disappear without leaving a trace. —After exposing the wound to the sun it is covered loosely with gauze. No instruments or apparatus are needed.—Muenchener Medicinische Wochenschrift, 1907

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.