Laboratory Criteria of the Cure of Typhoid Carriers

MOST reports on the cure of typhoid carriers by cholecystectomy give the impression that only three-quarters of the operations, or less, succeed in eliminating the focus of the bacilli ,1 2, 3 although some report better results.4 In Massachusetts we have a record of approximately 90 per cent cures. Bigelow and Anderson in 1933 5 gave the only previous report from this state on the subject. At that time there had been 13 operations with 13 apparent cures. Since then we have accumulated records on 55 additional operations. This paper describes our further experiences with the hope of encouraging even wider use of cholecystectomy in the cure of typhoid carriers. Recently the hope has been revived that non-surgical cure can be successful. Many of the current papers have described attempts at cure by medical treatment, particularly with sulfonamide derivatives. The idea that a chemical or biological agent might be used to eradicate the focus of typhoid bacilli is, of course, not a new one. By 1928, Stertenbrink6 was able to summarize the results of more than 100 different agents which had been tried. All had been uniformly without success. Some of the papers on the use of sul