Abstract
In an attempt to elucidate the pathological problem in spinal cord injury associated with fracture dislocations of the lumbo-dorsal and cervico-dorsal column, observations have been made on post mortem specimens at the Paraplegic Unit of the Royal Perth Hospital. These include 23 specimens in all stages of post accident state from one day to 20 years, observations being made on the bony, ligamentous, disc and neural lesions. Important in those observations are those in the neural tissue where it has been observed that the lesion is always one over some distance. Frequently there are cysts present, the cord is crushed in certain injuries, and there is frequently root damage of a number of types where an arachnoiditis and peridural scar are observed. This epidural scar has already been proved to be made worse by operative interference. Oedema and changes in the C.S.F. are commented upon.
With these pathological problems in mind, comment is made on the natural history of the disease, and the use and disuse of operative interference in the early stages.
The author believes that these observations prove quite conclusively that in very few cases (and mainly for bony reasons) will operative interference be justified.
A series of pathological observations obtained from the literature are briefly commented upon.
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Part of a paper read in New Zealand at the combined meetings of Australia and New Zealand Orthopaedic Associations.
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Bedbrook, G. Some pertinent observations on the pathology of traumatic spinal paralysis. Spinal Cord 1, 215–227 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1963.19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1963.19