[Decubitus ulcer in paraplegic patients--a comparative clinico-pathologic study]

331 pressure sores of 141 patients with paraplegia were investigated histologically, the results were partly correlated with the roentgenological features. The level of the spinal cord lesion was the segment Th12-L1 in 45%, the decubital ulcers were mostly localized above the os ischiadicum (64%). A pseudocancerosis was diagnosed in 14.2%, one time a cancer in a sacral decubitus has been found. The inflammation was limited to the soft tissue in 56.9%, in 28.5% a chronic osteomyelitis of different severity had developed. In 73.6% of the patients with a histologically proven osteomyelitis this osteomyelitis could be diagnosed roentgenologically too. The high amount and severity of the dermal and bony lesions justifies the radical surgical therapy of the pressure sores, which is practised today. Our investigations of chronic pressure sores did not point out new aspects of aetiology of pathogenesis--this is only possible by experimental models.