The Safety and Decision Making of Instrumented Surgery in Infectious Spondylitis

OBJECTIVE Infectious spondylitis is mostly managed by appropriate antibiotic treatment options, and some patients may require surgical interventions. However, surgical interventions that use spinal instrumentation to correct the mechanical instability may be associated with the risk of an increase in the recurrence rate. In this study, we investigated whether spinal instrumentation effects on recurrence of infectious spondylitis. METHODS The study was conducted as a retrospective study by dividing the subjects into the noninstrumentation surgery and instrumentation surgery groups among a total of 95 patients who had received surgical interventions in infectious spondylitis from 2009 to 2014. The study investigated patient variables such as underlying illness, presumed source of infection, clinical data, laboratory and radiological data, and ultimate outcome, and compared them between the 2 groups. RESULTS In the 95 patients, instrumentation was not used in 21 patients but it was used in 74 patients. When the disease involved ≥3 vertebral bodies, lumbosacral level and epidural part, noninstrumentation surgery was mainly conducted, but when the disease involved the thoracic level and psoas muscle part, instrumentation surgery was mainly conducted. However, there were no differences between the 2 groups in terms of the recurrence rate and the incidence of primary failure. CONCLUSION The use of instrumentation in treating infectious spondylitis was determined by the level of involvement and part of the infection, but the use of instrumentation did not cause any increases in the recurrence rate and the incidence of primary failure.