Abstract
1. In 120 of 740 European patients found to be suffering from spinal tuberculosis the disease was complicated by paraplegia. These 120 patients have been studied.
2. The patients could be divided into two groups: those receiving chemotherapy and those not receiving specific drugs. Chemotherapy improves the patient's general condition and makes operation safer, but does not have any significant effect in preventing paraplegia or in promoting recovery from it.
3. Only twenty-four of the fifty patients treated by closed method made full recovery.
4. The recovery rate after decompression was only 60 per cent. The reasons for this relatively low rate are discussed and the advantages of the postero-lateral approach to the cord, combined with focal operation on the lesion, are stressed.
5. Experience has shown that a policy of early and adequate focal operation can eliminate the risk of this serious complication of spinal tuberculosis.
6. The behaviour of spinal tuberculosis in the European is contrasted with that in the African and Asian.
