Charcot's arthropathy of the spine following spinal cord injury. A report of five cases.

Between 1955 and 1968, we treated five patients who had post-traumatic Charcot's arthropathy of the spine. All of the patients had a neurologically complete spinal-cord lesion. A laminectomy was implicated as the cause in four of the five patients. Spinal arthrodesis was used successfully to correct the deformity, stabilize the spine, restore sitting balance, and prevent complications resulting from neuropathic arthropathy of the vertebrae following complete spinal-cord injury.