Medicine: His Majesty’s Foot

What ails Britain’s George VI? All public engagements would be canceled “over a period of some months.” The official bulletins had been medically vague. But at week’s end it was learned that the King suffers from a variation of Buerger’s disease,* mostly affecting his right foot. Other more frightening names for it: presenile gangrene, thrombo-angiitis obliterans.

The trouble begins when inflammation in the arteries or veins slows or shuts down circulation of the blood; ulcers develop—or, in severe cases, gangrene. The disease usually affects arteries near the body’s surface, more often in the legs than in the arms. The King also suffers from hardening of the arteries, a combination said by U.S. doctors to be fairly unusual.

The King’s illness, certainly not trivial, has been developing for many months, but he did not consult any of the palace doctors until about ten days before the birth of Princess Elizabeth’s son. First symptoms are usually tired legs and cold feet; he has probably been suffering from these symptoms for some time, but blamed too much walking or standing. On Nov. 6 he did a lot of cross-country walking while hunting at Windsor; that night, after attending a British Legion Remembrance Festival, he complained that his right foot bothered him, but the next day he stood in the rain during a Remembrance Day service. Since he took over the throne his brother abdicated twelve years ago, the nervous, shy, self-effacing King has probably changed uniforms more often, shaken more hands, listened to more speeches, and laid more wreaths than any other chief of state in modern times.

The King’s doctors believe they have caught the illness at an early stage. He is up & around Buckingham Palace every day, limping slightly but not using a cane or crutch; usually he rests his foot on a pillow while working. Main medical treatment is described as an electric apparatus (which stimulates circulation), fitted around the thigh. Other possible treatments: rest in bed if there is pain; hot & cold baths; heat; drugs that dilate the arteries; a nerve-cutting operation.

The cause of Buerger’s disease is unknown. Many, but not all, patients are cigarette smokers (smoking constricts the small arteries). The King’s doctors are reported to have ordered him to stop his heavy smoking. Most patients with Buerger’s disease also have acute or chronic epidermophytosis (fungus diseases of the skin like washerwomen’s itch or athlete’s foot). The disease occurs most frequently between the ages of 20 and 45 (the King will be 53 Dec. 14). Doctors do not know why, but men victims outnumber women 75 to 1.

*Named for the late Dr. Leo Buerger, a Vienna-born Manhattan surgeon who first fully described the disease in 1908.