The NBC show ER recently featured a young motor-vehicle accident victim with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), clearly putting the condition squarely on network TV. However, given the graphic and unusual nature of the young man’s situation, the program has indeed potentially raised more questions about AS than it answered.

The young patient’s medical situation in the ER show did not represent the typical young AS patient. Indeed, it would be very, very unusual for a young adult to have a fully fused cervical spine – which means that the bones of the vertebrae in the area of the neck have calcified to form a bony bridge, making the neck or spine rigid and immobile. When and if this does occur, it almost always takes many years.

That said, when the bones of spine are fused together, whether it occurs throughout the spine or randomly, the spine is much more fragile to trauma because there is no flexibility.

AS patients when preparing for a surgical procedure, which involves general anesthesia, need to alert the anesthesiologist to their condition before the day of surgery so that an appropriate and safe method for administering the anesthetic can be decided upon ahead of time.

The SAA is committed to raising awareness about AS and its complications both within and outside of the medical community. The number of misconceptions and the amount of inaccurate information about AS in the public at large and in the media requires the SAA’s continuing efforts to educate and inform. In the case of the ER episode, a member of SAA’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Board was available to advise and correct some gross inaccuracies contained in the initial script; but we clearly have additional and ongoing educational work to do, and with your support, we are committed to achieving those objectives.