MORPHINE HYPERSENSITIVITY IN KYPHOSCOLIOSIS

It has been recognized since the time of Hippocrates that patients suffering from " hump back" die young. The first descriptions of early death in persons suffering from severe kyphoscoliosis did not incriminate the cardiovascular system, and it was not until the end of the last century that continental observers described heart failure as being the most frequent cause. In 1930, Coombs made one of the first contributions to the English literature in a paper entitled, " Fatal cardiac failure in persons with angular deformity of the chest." More recently, in America, Chapman, Dill, and Graybiel (1939) have investigated twelve such cases, and in a review of others reported, showed that the average age at death was only thirty years. The purpose of this communication is to describe three patients whose deaths while in cardiac failure are believed to have been precipitated by the administration of morphia.