Three-Year Post-Discharge Status of Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Treated 1947 Through 1951

¹ The Pulmonary Disease Division, Medical Service, Veterans Administration Medical Teaching Group Hospital (Kennedy).

1. A follow-up of 505, of a possible 520, patients with pulmonary tuberculosis treated during the period between 1947-1951, and studied three years post-discharge is presented.

2. The type of discharge received was the most important factor in determining the patient's status three years post-discharge.

3. Whether the patient received chemotherapy or not prior to discharge, seemed to be of minor importance to the post-hospital course.

4. The fact that patients who received chemotherapy were as a group less favorable cases than those who did not, may account for the lack of obviously superior post-discharge results. It is suggested that chemotherapy may have made it possible for the more gravely ill patients to achieve similar results as the more favorable patients.

5. It would appear, also, that chemotherapy as used in 1947-1951 did not significantly alter the tendency of tuberculosis to relapse.

6. Tried and proved methods of therapy should not be discarded until evidence accumulated oven a sufficiently long period of time definitely indicates that they are no longer needed.