THE ORTHOPAEDIC TREATMENT OF STRÜMPELL-MARIE ARTHRITIS

¹ The Robert B. Brigham Hospital, Boston

1. Relief from pain, muscle spasm, and strain was rapid and effective in the fifty-nine cases in which the patients cooperated.

2. The usual deformities in posture were prevented in a large majority of the cases.

3. Chest expansion increased.

4. Better general health, as shown by increased weight and ability to return to work, was noticeable.

5. Patients were up sooner and out of the hospital earlier.

6. Not one new hip involvement occurred in any of the sixty-two cases in which the jackets were worn, and seven out of eleven hips with symptoms of involvement improved after the jackets were applied.

7. The experiment suggests that ossification of the intravertebral ligaments is less rapid and extensive where the spine is supported with jackets early in the disease.

8. Jackets have given greater comfort than any form of treatment, according to the statements of the patients themselves.

9. The results following the use of jackets are superior to those which were obtained in the forty-five cases previously treated with other forms of support.

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