[Preliminary report of short-course tuberculosis of the spine]

This study consisted of 149 newly diagnosed cases of tuberculosis of the spine; these were alloeated into the following two regimens: 4SHER/5HER and 4SHER/5H3E3R3. 145 cases have completed their chemotherapy. In patients (2.7%) the allocated regimens was modified because of adverse reactions. All of the patients except 9 cases, operative debridment of the spinal focus was performed within 1-3 months of the start of chemotherapy. Some of the results from this study were encouraging: (1) the therapeutic response was favourable in both regimens, and adverse reactions, mainly hepatic toxicity, were rather low, (2) after a four-month initial intensive phase, both intermittent administration for 5 months or daily treatment for 5 month in the continuation phase were of the same high efficacy at the end of treatments as well as during 4-44 months follow-up.