Lectures on orthopedic surgery / by John Ridlon and Robert Jones.
- John Ridlon
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Lectures on orthopedic surgery / by John Ridlon and Robert Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![case, even the one presenting only the few symptoms requisite for a certain diagnosis and most favorably circumstanced as to nursing and treatment, will recover within a year; two years constitute a short time, and the average case will require treatment for from three to four years, and many a much longer time. As to life: Although spondylitis is a most prolonged and serious disease, the prognosis as to life is remark- ably good. In neglected cases the death-rate may run as high as 30%; in cases receiving proper nursing and conservative treatment the death-rate is not more than Fig. 32.—Cervical spondylitis simulating wry-neck. The chin points towards the prominent sterno-mastoid muscle. In wry-neck the chin points away from the prominent sterno-mastoid muscle. 8%; to this may be added 10% for such cases as are subjected to operative measures. As to the complications : Abscesses are reabsorbed in about half the cases, provided the spine is properly protected. Abscesses that open spontaneously and are left to empty without interference heal as kindly as sinuses resulting from incision, and rarely afflict the patient with symptoms of septic poisoning. Abscesses that are incised rarely heal by first intention, and as a rule ])econie septic and continue to discharge as long](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21074616_0061.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
