Posterior tuberculous sinuses of vertebral origin; wound revision and closure with streptomycin permitting early spinal fusion.

BEFORE the advent of streptomycin, half the patients having sinuses associated with Pott's disease died. Many procedures were devised and advocated for the control of tuberculous abscesses and sinuses but were uniformly characterized by poor therapeutic response. Aspiration of abscesses and excision of sinuses were followed by recurrence in about 60 per cent of the cases.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 When such foci of soft-tissue infection presented near the site of tuberculous spondylitis, it was rarely possible to perform spinal fusion without considerable risk to the patient. Usually, in the face of this common complication, all thought of spinal fusion was abandoned. The only . . .