Comparative analysis of the therapy of acute transverse myelitis

Abstract

Abstract. Three methods of treatment of acute transverse myelitis are presented. The first group of 16 patients were treated with antibiotics (average age 32.1). Three patients died, I I remained unrecovered, while in two cases remarkable improvement was re corded. The second group of IS patients, whose average age was 32 . 4, were treated with corticosteroids per os or instrumuscularly. Four of the patients died (three of them with ascendent course of disease), there was no change in five cases, while marked im provement ('cured' and 'walking with assistance') was recorded in the remaining six cases. The third group of ten patients, eight women and two men, ranging from IS to 47 years of age (average age 26·9) was treated with methylprednisolone acetate intrathecally. Five patients were practically cured after 3 to 4 weeks. Two patients were cured to an extent that they could walk with assistance. In two cases no improvement was recorded, while one of the patients, who in addition suffered from serum myelitis, died of bilateral bronchopneumonia. In all these cases the drug was administered comparatively late, on the 6th or 7th day of the disease.