Rheumatic Diseases Among Civil War Troops

By Alfred Jay Bollet MD
Arthritis & Rheumatism, Volume 34, Issue 9, pages 1197–1203, 7 October 1991

ABSTRACT
There are extensive existing medical records of Federal Civil War troops. More than 160,000 cases of „acute rheumatism” occurred among these soldiers, and acute rheumatic fever was known to be the main cause. Infectious arthritides were frequent but not understood; gout was rare. „Chronic rheumatism” was diagnosed more than 246,000 times; prolonged rheumatic fever and reactive arthritis following dysentery were probably the major causes. Over 12,000 soldiers were discharged because of chronic rheumatism, many with "lumbago,” which was probably spondylarthropathy.

From: onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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