The Results of Combined Drug Therapy and Early Fusion in Bone Tuberculosis

¹ Central Washington Tuberculosis Hospital, Selah

This is an early report of a regimen of treatment in which streptomycin, paraaminosalicylic acid, and isonicotinic acid hydrazide were administered to seventeen patients with bone tuberculosis on admittance to the Hospital. These drugs were used continuously and concurrently with surgery, if indicated, until six months after surgery. Fusion seemed to be safe, even in the presence of draining sinuses, after an average of seventy-two days of chemotherapy. There were fifteen successful fusions resulting from the first operation. The period of hospitalization for the patients with bone lesions was less than a year—the average time was 237 days. There were no fatalities in the group and all the patients have returned to their former occupations.

We have found that the culture of tissue from extrapulmonary tuberculosis is positive in a large percentage of patients despite chemotherapy. Consequently, we must conclude that therapy with the three drugs is less effective in retarding the advance of extrapulmonary lesions than it is in sterilizing pulmonary tuberculosis.

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