A Clinical Study on 40 Cases of Pott's Paraplegia

Pott's paraplegia has still high incidence in Korea although antituberculous drugs have been widely used in tuberculosis of the spine. Many surgeons have reported on mechanism and treatment for the paraplegia since the decade of 1940. The author analyzed 40 consecutive cases of Pott's paraplegia operated at the orthopedic department of Seoul National University Hospital during the years 1957-1967. 1) Number of cases in child and adult group were similar and two sexes were identical in this series. 2) Regions of the spine involved were most common at the lower thoracic spine and thoracolumbar junction Number of affected vertebra averaged 3.0. 3) 37.5% of patients had complicated with pulmonary and other tuberculous manifestations. 4) Hospitalization averaged 33.6 days. 5) There were 31 early and nine late paraplegia and the incidence between child and adult was not significant. 6) There noted 14 complete and 26 incomplete paraplegia, the incidence of complete paraplegia was more common among adults. 7) There were no significant relationship between the duration, onset and grade of the paraplegia. 8) In 17 cases of parvertebral soft tissue shadow revealed by rentgenography, abscess was found in 64.7% at operation. 9) Three out of 14 cases operated by costotransversectomy had failure, and five out of 26 cases operated by anterior spinal fusion had failure. Children had showed somewhat better result than the adult. Early and incomplete paraplegia had better results than late and complete paraplegia.