The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-12-05
SPINE AILMENTS
TREATED BY KNIFE
tuberculosis Treatment by
Grating Is Found to
Be Successful.

NEW YORK, Dec. 5.-The success
OF . new operation for spinal tuber-
culosis-a disease that often attacks
city children-recently demonstrated
by DR.. Fred H. Albee in the Post.
Graduate and Sea Breeze hospitals
was assured yesterday in a report is
sued by the Association for Improving
the Condition Of the Poor. under
whose auspices the latter institution
10 conducted. Medical men of prom
thence expressed themselves as con-
fident the process discovered by DR..
Albee. who found that the tuberculo-
transplanting part OF the shinbone OF
the sufferer in the spine, would rev.
olutiOnize methods of remedyins spin
al troubles, and would straighten per-
manently the bent bodies Of thous-
ands of little hunchbacks throughout
the metropolis.
Until now the treating of sufferers
from tuberculosis of the spine-both
infants and adults-has been diff
cult task, often attended with fatal
results. 1t involved strapping the pa
tient to an apparatus known as the
Bradford frame for as long period
as was necessary to force the curved
spine into less abnormal position.
Hundreds of youngsters, among
them the famous Smiling Joe Marion
have been partly relieved of their de-
formities through the Bradford frame
process. But they seldom have arisen
from their long Imprisonment on the
apparatus with their backs entirely
straight, even after treatment cover
ing as much as four years. DR.. AL
bees system, including the time OF
convalescence, allows for period OF
from a few months to not more than
d year, as the nature of the case re-
Quires.
Before starting the operation itself,
the report of the association remarks,
It Is needful to subject the tubercular
sufferer to the molding process of the
Bradford frame for a few weeks, until
the curvature of the spine is corrected
sufficiently to permit the surgeons
scalpel to be used. Once the "correc-
ton" of the disease Is obtained the
operation makes 1t a relatively sim
pie question to make it permanent.
BY the old method the physicians
sought to insure permanency of the
Strengthened spine by strapping it in
one position on the Bradford fran for
years at a time.
In crossing =, the shlnbone :. as the
hest one from which to obtain the
necessary section of bone DR.. Albee
thought that from two to six inches
might. be taken from that vertebra
without permanently weakening it.
Having removed the required piece of
the shinbone, the next step is to cut
the bone projections at the base of
the spine, known as the sinous process
ses, 20 that the shinbone section may
be grated firmly to them.
That il done by splitting each of
them down the middle as one might
split foud fingers held straight and
rigidly-the spinous processes stand
out in such way they resemble the
fingers of human hand. After that
is done, is Is not difficult to insert
the transplanted bone between the
split parts so tightly they will be
bound fast together. BY this process
the entire spine1Is held immovable in
its normal position, and the bacilli of
tuberculosis gradually die. DR.. Albee
has found that tubercular germs can.
not live In the spinal vertebra with
out the movement given to them by
the patients breathing and he says
that movement ceases with the streng.
thening Of the spine by the bone
transplanting.