[The diagnosis of spondylodiscitis].
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This is the report of a 49-year-old man, who could be cured of aspergillosis with Aspergillus osteomyelitis and diskitis of the lumbar spine by medical and surgical therapy after heart retransplantation. Aspergillus osteomyelitis and diskitis is a rare complication of invasive aspergillosis. Lumbar involvement is the main manifestation, followed by rare locations in the tibia, ribs, wrist, sternum, pelvis, and knee. It is nearly always secondary to pulmonary aspergillosis, which occurs in about 6% to 14% of patients after heart transplantation. For treatment, a combined surgical and medical approach is recommended, which enables quick pain relief for the patient and histologic and microbiologic diagnosis and stabilization of the spine. Because of definitive cure of osteomyelitis cannot be guaranteed by removal of the abscess, medical therapy after surgery is necessary for years.
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Intervertebral disk space infection is common in children and has certain clinical and imaging characteristics. Until recently, the diagnosis has largely depended on plain roentgenography and/or radionuclide imaging. This article emphasizes the role of cross-sectional imaging, including computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of childhood spinal infections.
For many years now percutaneous techniques have proved effective in the curative treatment of lumbar disc herniation, mostly in young subjects. This technique, however, is seldom indicated, let alone performed, in the cervical spine for a variety of reasons: a) the neck contains several closely arranged structures such as the vasculo-nervous bundles, the airway-digestive tract and the cervical spine around the spinal cord; b) the disc is approached by the anterior route, in contrast with the lumbo-sacral spine where the approach is posterolateral; c) the manufacturers insist on restrictions in the use of chymopapain in view of the potential risk of spinal cord damage, either by possible breaks in the meninges of by accidental diffusion of the enzyme into perimedullary epidural structures which support a particularly developed venous plexus; d) legal protection may be denied to operators who perform cervical chemonucleolysis, since the product has not yet been officially authorized, in France and perhaps elsewhere*, for treatment of cervical disc herniation. Several years of experience in the practice of cervical nucleolysis have convinced the authors that this method is remarkably effective and can be used in the treatment of cervicobrachial neuralgia (CBN) occurring in young subjects. Radiculalgia is essentially due to a disc fragment being positioned within the vertebral canal or a foramen, thereby compressing the nerve roots. During several years microsurgery of the disc has been effective in the treatment of refractory radiculalgia, and to compete with this procedure familiar to neurosurgeons cervical nucleolysis must convincingly demonstrate that its therapeutic value is at least as good as that of surgery. Finally, the vast majority of cervical disc herniations is made up of free disc fragments located within the meshes of the posterior longitudinal ligament of the spine (transligamentous fragment). Cervical nucleolysis was introduced in France by Bonafe and Lazorthes made enthusiastic by their first studies, and the idea of this procedure, developed by a radio-neurosurgical team, has gradually been gaining ground. The decision to intervene is made when the radiculalgia is recurrent or resistant to a well-conducted medical treatment of several weeks duration. Therefore all disc herniations that would have been treated surgically can be treated by injection of an enzyme. This point is very important, and in fact the well-codified and effective surgical procedure has progressively been abandoned by the operators, in view of the simplicity of nucleolysis and the rapid pain relief it procures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
BACKGROUND: Spondylodiscitis by enterococcus is a very infrequent disease with only 2 cases caused exclusively by this microorganism having been reported in the literature. METHODS: Two clinical cases of spondylodiscitis by enterococcus diagnosed in the authors' department are presented with the clinical, radiologic and evolutive features of both. RESULTS: In the first case the spondylodiscitis was secondary to endocarditis with lumbosacral involvement and formation of an anterior epidural inflammatory mass. The second case was the consequence of an infection of urinary origin with lumbosacral involvement. Both patients responded favorably with only antibiotic treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Spondylodiscitis by enterococci is an unusual disease with no therapeutic experience. The authors report 2 cases which were treated exclusively with antibiotics.
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OBJECTIVE: The incidence of destructive spondyloarthropathies (SpA) in hemodialysis can reach 50% after 10 years of treatment. Few studies have analyzed the magnetic resonance (MR) appearance of destructive SpA and data are controversial. Our objective was to evaluate the computerized tomographic (CT) scan and MR appearance of destructive SpA in comparison to infectious spondylodiscitis. METHODS: 23 destructive SpA were observed in 11 patients who had undergone hemodialysis [mean duration of treatment 12 years (89-228 mo)]: 17 SpA of the cervical spine, one of the dorsal, and 5 of the lumbar spine. CT scans at all levels demonstrating narrowing and discovertebral erosions were performed without injection. MRI was performed with T1 and T2* weighted spin echo sequences (0.5T) without gadolinium injection. Radiographs were analyzed by 2 independent examiners. The data concerning MRI of infectious spondylodiscitis were based on a study of 57 personal cases and literature reports. RESULTS: CT scan appearance was similar in all cases, especially showing multiple small well defined lucencies of the vertebral endplates. In 9 patients, MRI showed low signal intensity of the disk and the adjacent vertebral endplates on T1 and T2* sequences. In no case was discal or vertebral high signal intensity on T2* sequence noted. No periodontoidal pseudotumor was observed. CONCLUSION: CT scans and MRI of destructive SpA, even nonspecific, are different from those observed in infectious spondylodiscitis, particularly due to the absence of discal and vertebral hypersignal on T2* sequences.