[Diagnosis and treatment of chronic urethritis in the military health-care system with the change of the century (XIX-XX)].

Objectives: We can say that in military hospitals, pioneer institutions in health-care in our country, approximately 25% of the pathology over the second half of the 19th century would correspond to sexually transmitted diseases (STD), with hospital wards dedicated to these diseases, initially associated with genitourinary diseases. The "military drip" or blennorrhagic urethritis was a venereal disease with great incidence and prevalence in the pre-antibiotic era. This article reviews the diagnostic and therapeutic methods employed by Spanish military doctors during such period.
Methods: In the introduction we state the relationship between the knowledge of the time and the environment in which military doctors developed their professional activity. We make reference to military health-care journals, vehicle for their worries and demonstration of the level of theoretical and practical knowledge they were distinguished for. Based on their service records and publications we refer the urologists from the military health-care system that showed a greater interest in the field of urethral diseases, talking about the methodology they used for diagnosis and treatment of blennorrhagic urethritis.
Results and Conclusions: Military health-care at the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century joined a group of professionals who demonstrated talent and perseverance in the treatment of "military drip". To know the concepts for the diagnosis and treatment of urethritis improves our perspective in the knowledge of these pathologies, and confirms us in the evaluation of the advances available for us today, thanks to the addition of efforts of our predecessors.