Changes in vertebral end plates in congenital spine deformities.

The authors investigated morphologically material from 30 patients with congenital spine deformities operated on at the 2nd Orthopaedic University Department in Brno, and the spines of two patients who underwent a spinal operation and later died from other causes, and also the spines of young, healthy road accident victims. In the course of operations for congenital deformities of the spine representative tissue samples were taken (hemivertebrae, quarter vertebrae, etc.), along with the adjacent parts of intervertebral disks. The authors concentrated mainly on the growth defects of deformed vertebrae and microscopic changes in the adjacent cartilage plates. In this way light was thrown on some questions of both defects of formation and defects of segmentation of the mesenchymal base of the spine. The defects of ossification and growth disorders observed are, in the authors' opinion, an important component in the occurrence of congenital deformities and idiopathic scolioses and have a major effect on their progression.