BACKGROUND Pyogenic spondylodiscitis is a form of spinal infection that can result in severe back pain and even death. However, information is lacking on the relative effectiveness of various therapies. A retrospective chart review was conducted to investigate whether early surgical treatment of pyogenic spondylodiscitis coupled with intravenous antibiotics results in better patient prognoses t...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome after radical surgical treatment of multifocal infections involving the spine. METHODS The study demonstrates a retrospective chart review of seven patients who had more than three different abscesses in the musculoskeletal system and at least one of them in the area of the spinal column. All patients had a sepsis. RESULT...

Background: Post operative lumbar disc space infection is relatively uncommon. The anterior approach has been the traditional surgical approach for treatment of this complication. Posterior approach was sometimes added for instrumentation only. Purpose: To present the results and clinical outcome, at a minimum of twelve months, following transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) and posteri...

BACKGROUND Tuberculous spondylodiscitis is one the many manifestations of active tuberculosis (TB) and can result following primary infection or, more frequently, from reactivation of active TB in subjects with latent TB. Definitive diagnosis of tuberculous spondylodiscitis requires the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the biological sample following microbiological analysis. A...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the diagnostic value of the open biopsy technique and the percutaneous biopsy techniques in lumbar spondylodiscitis. METHODS Between January 2004 and December 2009, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 57 patients with infectious lumbar spondylodiscitis. The etiologic diagnosis of the infectious spondylodiscitis w...

BACKGROUND Spinal infections (pyogenic or non-pyogenic) are increasing in incidence and are a common cause of morbidity in high-risk patients (elderly, immunocompromised patients, diabetic patients, drug addicts, and patients with sickle-cell disease). AIM To provide an overview of the radiological features of spinal infections, focusing on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and to illustrate t...

Pyogenic spinal infection continues to represent a worldwide problem. In approximately one-third of patients with pyogenic spondylodiscitis, the infectious agent is never identified. Of the cases that lead to organismal identification, bacteria are more commonly isolated from the spine rather than fungi and parasites. This study applied universal prokaryotic 16S rRNA PCR as a rapid diagnostic t...

Object: We describe the surgical treatment of a 44 year old woman presenting with spondylodiscitis from C4 to C6 and incomplete tetraparesis. She was transferred to our hospital after incomplete cervical decompression from C3-6 in a county hospital. Our therapy regimen was performed in 3 stages: First wie performed an implant removal and external fixation using a halofixateur with microbial era...