Spinal caries, or angular curvature / by Buckminster Brown.

  • Buckminster Brown
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spinal caries, or angular curvature / by Buckminster Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    In true caries, however, a very different method of treatment is Squired, and the relief which is afforded in a majority of instances y following a course consistent with our knowledge of the pathology f the disease, sometimes resulting in a complete recovery, with •ore or less amelioration of the deformity, is a sufficient encourage- cnt for its adoption in similar cases. So true is this, that whereas, ?)me years since, I felt unpleasantly to see a case of this descrip- on, believing that art could accomplish but little for such a for- idable malady, now, on the contrary, there is a satisfaction in ndertaking the treatment, for, if a complete cure is frequently lpossible, there is yet a strong probability that much suffering aay be relieved and comfort attained. As the diagnosis of spinal caries at an early period is confess- Uy very difficult, it is important to describe a symptom which iill enable us to detect its existence, at a stage prior to that Iriere its disastrous results have become decidedly manifest, and lich I have never seen noticed or referred to by any writer upon ie subject. Frequently angular curvature is preceded by incurvation of the ine, usually in the dorsal region. The shoulders are thrown k, an exaggeration, in fact, of what is generally considered a racteristic of a fine figure. The child walks with his head and )ulders posterior to the median line. This is the reverse of ;at takes place later in the disease. t seems to me probable that the condition here referred to, jy in part arise from a swelling of the bodies of certain verte- particularly their anterior portion, this being the part usually d most extensively affected by caries, together with consecu- tumefaction of the intervertebral substance. We know that King of bone, and of the soft parts in its neighborhood, pre- es carious disease in other parts of the frame. From analogy should expect that the pathology of spinal affections would cor- ond with that which exists elsewhere. At the period, how- r, when we have an opportunity to examine the morbid appear- es, they are often such as would lead to the conclusion that ration and softening of bone and cartilage are not always prc- d by the usual characteristics of inflammatory action, he description, nevertheless, which is given by Mr. Paget of rculous disease, as it makes its first inroads upon the osseous ctures, tends to sustain the views I have here advanced of the y pathology of spinal caries, as connected with its primary cha-
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