Tuberculosis of bones and joints / by N. Senn.

Nicholas Senn

Date:: 1892

Credit: Tuberculosis of bones and joints / by N. Senn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

41/578 page 19

$Ten days after the injection a nodule formed at the point of puncture, followed by infection of the inguinal glands. About the eleventh day he produced injuries of joints and bones, such as sprains, contusions, and fractures. In rabbits the injuries were preceded by intra-peritoneal or intra-venous injections of pure cultures. The latter method of injection was often fol- lowed by death from acute miliary tuberculosis before the process had time to locate at the seat of injury. The animals that sur- vived the injection three to seven weeks furnished positive results in reference to disease of the injured joints and bones. Of fifteen guinea-pigs that were inoculated, and in which injuries of bones and joints were produced, and that died of general tuberculosis, only in one were the bones and joints intact. The fractures united by bony callus; the process ol' repair showed no deviation from that in healthy animals. There were no evidences of tubercular disease. Of three dislocations of large joints, only in one was the capsule the seat of tubercular disease. Of forty-four sprained joints, only fifteen became tubercular. In tliese cases the syno- vial membrane was infiltrated with round-cells and quite vascu- lar. The nodiiles, which often attained considerable size,'were made up of round and epithelioid cells. In the centre of the larger nodules was incipient caseation; no giant-cells; tubercle bacilli always present, but few in number; articular cartilages normal. In six cases there was well-marked tuberculosis in the medulla of the epiphysial extremities of the long bones. Bacilli in this locality were as scanty as in the synovial membrane. In one specimen in the lower end of the femur he found three emboli which contained tubercle bacilli. In the rabbits that were inoculated he produced twenty-eight sprains in as many different joints, and found later tubercular lesions in half of the injured joints. The fractures made in these animals healed in tlie same manner as in tlie guinea-pigs, by bony union witliout a sign of tuberculosis, altliougli tubercles in the medul- lary tissue were found more frequently than in the guinea-pigs; but these, wlien present, were always found from one to several$

Tuberculosis of bones and joints / by N. Senn.

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