In 1913 Kehrer 1 described a group of new-born infants with convulsions, flexor contractions of the extremities, carpal spasms and positive facial and Trousseau signs. Rapid improvement followed the administration of calcium salts. He believed the condition to be tetany of the new-born. Somewhat earlier Bliss 2 had described an infant of 6 days with electrical reactions pathognomonic of tetany and Yanase 3 had observed two infants, aged 12 and 15 days, respectively, with anodal hyperexcitability, one of whom showed a cathodal opening contraction with less than 5 milliamperes at the age of 29 days. Despite these observations it was generally believed that tetany does not occur in the new-born.Interest in this subject was revived by the reports of Shannon4 and Bass and Karelitz.5 In 1931 the latter described three new-born infants with convulsions, general hyperirritability and exaggerated facial and Trousseau signs who showed dramatic improvement after the intravenous injection of calcium gluconate. Though their cases cannot properly be included as instances of tetany because of the lack of determinations of the serum calcium content (the serum calcium con¬ tent, determined in only one case, was 8.5 mg. per hundred cubic centi¬ meters), their paper served to focus attention on this subject and led to the definite establishment of the syndrome.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.