Pott's Disease, Its Pathology and Mechanical Treatment (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879. Excerpt: ... POTT'S DISEASE: ITS PATHOLOGY AND MECHANICAL TREATMENT. WITH REMARKS ON ROTARY LATERAL CURVATURE. CHAPTER I. PATHOLOGY. THE opportunities for making post-mortem examinations, with a view to ascertain the pathological condition of the vertebral column in the earliest stage of Pott's disease--that is, before deformity occurs--are certainly very rare. If the lesion presented at this period, an acute stage, during which the patient might die, our pathological opportunities would be increased, and many points still in dispute regarding its etiology would be definitely settled. But I have never seen, nor obtained the history of, an idiopathic, acute spondylitis. That which has ordinarily been described to me as such, I am convinced, has been nothing more than an exacerbation of an insidiously progressive, but semi-latent chronic state. And many of the socalled acute and sub-acute attacks which ultimate in a completely disintegrated joint, are generally found as part of the history of every progressive, chronic, osseous lesion of the articulations. On the other hand, the frequent occurrence of an idiopathic, acute inflammation of some of the structures entering into the formation of the larger articulations, and especially the synovial membrane and fibrous capsule, has suggested to many surgeons that this acute condition may pass by gradual stages into a chronic one. But no one has, so far as I am aware, attempted to trace a chronic spondylitis to a definite, acute, non-traumatic origin. In every sense this disease may be considered a typically chronic one, from its very inception to its ultimate result. Indeed, the disease is so typically chronic, that it is always a difficult matter to decide in tarh case, as it presents for examination, at just what time the ...