In 1948, Tillet and Sherry published a report1 on the clinical use of streptokinase and streptodornase for enzymatic débridement. Since then, many papers have appeared which have demonstrated the therapeutic effectiveness of these agents in a variety of clinical conditions.
Despite this large and ever growing literature, it is felt that the following report is indicated to demonstrate that enzymatic therapy, if properly used, can at times be over-whelmingly important in the management of infected wounds. In some of the cases presented here, the use of streptokinase-streptodornase (SK-SD) (Varidase, Lederle) resulted in control of serious conditions which were otherwise refractory to treatment and which, had they not been so treated, would have resulted in severe incapacitation, or, in one case, the death of the patient.
It is the purpose of this paper to review and emphasize some of the various methods by which SK-SD has been applied in the