1. Twenty-eight patients with pyogenic infection of the spine are reported. 2. Diagnosis was by clinical, radiological and bacteriological means. Investigations of the spinal lesions by needle aspiration or open operation was needed in four patients. 3. Treatment consisted primarily of antibiotics and rest. 4. Twenty-five patients were fit and well after follow-up of one to fifteen years. Three deaths occurred, but only one was directly connected with the infection ; urinary infection with paraplegia and haemophilia were the cause in two others. 5. The relatively benign course is stressed, as are some of the diagnostic pitfalls in the early stages, particularly with thoracic lesions.
1. The spinal branches of the vertebral artery were injected with a suspension of barium sulphate and the blood supply of the vertebral bodies of the lower four or five cervical vertebrae investigated radiologically. 2. Beneath the posterior longitudinal ligament there is a free dorsal arterial plexus from which a large branch arises to enter the back of the vertebral body. This vessel terminates abruptly at the centre of the body where numerous, much smaller, branches radiate towards the upper and lower surfaces. 3. The possible significance of the form of the intravertebral arteries is considered in relation to embolic lesion in vertebral bodies.
