Three patients with ankylosing spondylitis complicated by destructive vertebral lesions have been reported. One patient had three separate lesions over a ten-year period. Another patient sustained a fracture through the posterior elements prior to the occurrence of granuloma formation of the intervertebral space. The third patient had spinal-cord compression with complete paralysis from which he had a partial recovery following recumbency, lateral rachitomy, and fusion.
The etiology of these lesions is unknown, but it is suggested that they represent response to delayed union or non-union of fractures occurring in rheumatoid spondylitis.