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Kümmell's disease

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Historical term for late posttraumatic collapse of a vertebral body. Injury (without fracture) of a vertebra which produces gradual compression and collapse of the vertebral body due to circulatory disorders with resulting rarefying osteitis. Pain, weakness, kyphosis, and a wedge-shaped vertebra are the principal symptoms. The initial injury may be seemingly trivial. The disease occurrs primarily in middle age and the elderly.

Bibliography

  • H. Kümmell:
    Traumatische rarefizierende Ostitis. Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte, Leipzig, (1891), 1892: 282.185.
  • H. Kümmell:
    Über die traumatischen Erkrankungen der Wirbelsäule.
    Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift, Berlin, 1895, 21: 180-181.
    Kümmell described a series of six patients who sustained "vertebral body collapse" after seemingly minor trauma.
  • H. Kümmell:
    Der heutige Standpunkt der posttraumatischen Wirbelerkrankung (Kümmellsche Krankheit).
    Archiv für orthopädische und Unfall-Chirurgie, München, 1928; 26: 471.

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