Fusion of the Spine for Tuberculosis in Children

A Long-Range Follow-up Study

¹ Orthopaedic Services of Sea View and St. Luke's Hospitals, New York

1. Spine-fusion masses grow and of themselves cause minimal deformity.

2. In a child with tuberculous spondylitis, spine fusion can decrease or may prevent collapse of diseased vertebral bodies.

3. No residual pelvic defects were noted in these adults as a result of removal of iliac grafts from them as children.

4. Development of kyphosis may at times be the result of fatigue-stress fracture of the fusiomi mass with spontaneous repair occurring unnoted.

5. Paraplegia in a child, due to vertebral tuberculosis, demands spine fusion, not laminectomy or evacuation of abscess.

6. Tuberculosis of the spine in a child, adequately treated by spine fusion, can result in an excellent physical status in the adult (Fig. 25).

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