Ether for Diabetics

The isolation of insulin (in 1921) was a lifesaver for diabetics. But doctors now regard insulin as a mixed blessing. While it prolongs a diabetic's life, insulin may save him for complications that are even more dreaded than diabetes. Most common complication is arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

New Orleans' Dr. Robert A. Katz, a diabetic himself, has been working hard for four years on a promising treatment for gangrene due to diabetic hardening of the arteries. He discovered that intravenous ether injections dramatically stopped pain and cleared up the gangrene (TIME, March 10). Ether, the doctor thinks, opens up the tightened blood vessels and thereby improves circulation.

Last week Dr. Katz, who is head of the department of metabolism at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, reported on his work at a Chicago meeting of the American Society for the Study of Arteriosclerosis. His hopeful news: in his extensive tests, the ether treatment worked; in 80% of the cases it saved patients' gangrenous legs from amputation. Boasted the doctor: "I've blazed a trail."

Dr. Katz was even confident about his own case. Said he: "Insulin is only good on a diabetic for 25 years, and then comes the danger of gangrene. I have seven years to go." To play safe, Dr. Katz has already started using ether injections himself.

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