[Etiologic and pathogenetic factors in Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome (author's transl)]

The Waterhouse-Friderischsen syndrome (WFS) is the morphological substrate of a rapidly, mostly irreversible shock due to endotoxemia similar to the Sanerelli-Shwartzman phenomenon. The following disturbances of microcirculation cause death. The findings of 13 postmortem examinations reveal that acute severe respiratory infections, especially of nose and throat as etiologic factors, are more frequent than meningitis. Apparently different pathogens and shock vary the couse of disease and symptomatology before death. Moreover, because of the rarity and intensity of the WFS, as yet unknown or unrecognized dispositional factors cannot be ruled out.