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APPENDIX D.
REPORT ON DERMATOLOGICAL AND ACTINOTHERAPEUTIC DEPARTMENT.
For the Year Ended 31st December, 1932.
By H. D. HALDIN-DAVIS, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S.
The most important feature of last year's work was the development of the clinic for the
treatment of varicose ulcers. This work was actually begun in September, 1931, but it only developed
gradually as the fact that these conditions were being treated at the Council Clinic generally became
known through Willesden. 42 new cases have presented themselves during the year at this Clinic.
At the present time there are 21 patients attending and we have discharged during the past year
ten as cured. Some of these patients have suffered from ulcers of the legs for many years and there
is no doubt that they would have gone on doing so to the end of their lives had not the modern
methods employed at the Clinic been made available to them. In some cases healing was obtained
but subsequently owing to the fact that the newly grown skin over the ulcer is thin and poorly nourished
scar tissue, it has broken down again and treatment has had to be resumed. Hence the comparatively
small number entered as " cured." This is not surprising for after long continued ulceration the
vitality of the tissues is much diminished and limbs which have long been the subjects of chronic