Bone transplantation as a treatment of Pott's disease, club feet and ununited fractures / by Fred H. Albee.

  • Albee, Fred H. (Fred Houdlett), 1876-1945.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bone transplantation as a treatment of Pott's disease, club feet and ununited fractures / by Fred H. Albee. 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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    BONE TRANS: POTT’S dis: Vol. XXVII Number 11 FRACTURES. BY FRED H. ALBEE, M.D. The following is a more extended report of the use and result of bone transplantation in the treatment of Pott’s disease of the spine and is based upon fifty-five successful cases. Previous reports have appeared in the Journal of The American Medical Association of September 9th, 1911, Vol. VII, pp. 885 and 886 and in the New York Medical Journal of March 9th, 1912. It should be mentioned here, that previous to the adoption of the herein described operation by the writer, a procedure was devised and applied to four cases. It consisted of splitting and breaking the spinous processes, with the approximation of the same. The purpose was to secure bony union between the spi- nous processes of the involved vertebrae. Early reports of this procedure appeared in the Annual Folder of the American Orthopedic Association of May 15th, 1911, (abstract) and the Journal of the American Medical Association of September 9th, 1911. This osteoplastic method has been entirely given up, in favor of the present one on account of its untrustworthiness in pro- ducing a bony bridge and other obvious reasons, stated below. The writer was induced to undertake this work on the spine, first, because of the inefficiency of the present ambulatory treat- ment of Pott’s disease, especially in the upper dorsal region and second, on account of the excellent operative results obtained in tuberculous joints elsewhere in the body, where bony union with its perfect support and immobilization has caused the tuber- culous process to disappear so rapidly, although only a fractional part of the tuberculous tissues were removed. This has been especially exemplified in the author’s ankylosing operation on the hip, (see Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics) March 1910 pages 25Q-265) when applied to tuberculous ostitis of that joint and also in the erasion of the knee under similar circum- stances. This same fact that it is only necessary to se'cure bony ‘stiffening in tuberculous joints, by operation or otherwise in conjunction with the accepted hygienic treatment, in order to get a rapid disappearance of the tuberculous process has been emphasized very strongly in the recent writings of Ely, from his pathologic studies.