Myelodysplastics--fate of those followed for twenty years or more

Of a total of 143 myelodysplastic patients treated between 1928 and 1951, there were sixty-three patients with severe myelodysplasia whose records allowed long-term review. At the time of writing twenty-nine were alive and were twenty to forty-three years old. All were walking in the hospital while under an intensive physical therapy program. However only two of the nine with twelfth thoracic-second lumbar function were walking at final follow-up as adults, while nineteen of the twenty with function at the third lumbar level were doing so. The status of the hips did not correlate with the ability to walk. One-third of the survivors were self-supporting at the time of writing. About one-half had scoliosis and in one-third was greater than 20 degrees.