CONGLOMERATE TUBERCLE AND COMBINED DEGENERATION OF THE CORD AS COMPLICATIONS OF VISCERAL TUBERCULOSIS

I. TUBERCULOSIS OF THE SPINAL CORD 

Occurrence and Pathology.  —Excluding ordinary tuberculous meningitis and tuberculosis of the meninges due to extension from Pott's disease, tuberculosis of the cord is comparatively uncommon. As a feature of the extremely common disease, tuberculosis, it is decidedly rare, but considered in connection with the relatively rare syndrome of spinal cord tumor, it is fairly common. Thus, among 213 cases of cord tumor collected by Edward Flatau¹ tubercle ranked first among the 58 cases of intramedullary tumor, glioma being second with 14 and sarcoma third with 13. Carl Doerr² in his paper of 1911, however, was only able to collect 74 cases, adding only 12 from the literature to the 62 in Schlesinger's³ monograph of 1898, and two new ones.Aside from a few cases of acute tuberculous meningomyelitis, practically all cases are instances of tumor-like "solitary," more properly conglomerate tubercle, and usually are due