TREATMENT OF VERTEBRAL TUBERCULOSIS BY THE SPINE FUSION OPERATION

¹ Fellow of New York, Orthopoedic Dispensary and Hospital, NEW YORK

1. In the six years from 1915 to 1920 inclusive, 286 cases of tuberculosis of the spine had 325 fusion operations at the New York Orthopaedic Dispensary and Hospital.

2. Thirty cases were excluded because the period of follow-up was short and the result was doubtful.

3. One hundred and eighty-one patients, or seventy and seven-tenths per cent. of the remainder, are living and cured Ten other patients were cured of tuberculosis of the spine, but died of other causes This makes the total number of cures 191 and the percentage seventy-four and six-tenths.

4. Eight patients, or three and one-tenth per cent., were not cured.

5. Sixty-seven patients, twenty-six and two-tenths per cent., died. Eighty-eight per cent. of the deaths were due to tuberculosis or directly related causes.

6. The operative mortality was only three, or nine-tenths of one per cent., all of whom were poor risks. For the entire number of 534 operations performed from 1911 to 1920 it is only five-tenths of one per cent.

7. These 286 patients represent practically the entire number of cases seen at the Orthopaedic Hospital during this period. The cases were not selected, and, almost without exception, no one was refused operation. These patients in the main were of the poorer class, coming from unfavorable surroundings, and after operation returned to the same environment.

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