Comparison of Surgical and Conservative Treatment for Spinal Tuberculosis

Treatment of spine has evolved much since Percivall Pott's first description of vertebral tuberculosis. However, there are still a lot of controversies regarding the best approache for prevention of deformities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical and X-ray characteristics of patients with vertebral tuberculosis and to compare the conservative treatment alone to the surgical one associated with antitubercular therapy, particularly regarding residual deformity and neurological deficit. .152 patients were evaluated: 52 were surgically treated. Among 152 patients, 100 (65%) cases were treat conservatively with antitubercular therapy only. Remaining 52 (35%) cases were treated by surgical intervention in combination with chemotherapy. In this study among 100 patients treated conservatively, 80(80%) showed significant improvement of neurological status and constitutional symptoms. Other 20 (20%) showed no improvement or deterioration of neurological status. In this series among 52 patients treated by surgical intervention, 50 (96%) showed significant improvement of neurological symptoms, But 2 (4%) patient failed to improve neurological status even after surgical treatment.