Patients: Between 1/1994 and 12/1998 40 patients with a vertebral osteomyelitis were treated at the Orthopedic University Hospital of Witten/Herdecke. All data of 15 female and 25 male patients with an mean age of 61 years (25-87 years) were analyzed in a retrospective study. Diagnosis of vertebral osteomyelitis was made between 1 and 84 weeks after onset of symptoms. Before admissions in our hospital up to 4 hospitalizations without proper diagnosis were reported.
Treatment: The treatment consisted bed-rest in an individual orthesis and percutaneous discovertebral biopsy before systemic administration of antibiotics. In 11 from a total of 21 biopsies we could prove bacteria as follows: 6 times Staphylococcus aureus, 2 times E. coli and 3 times Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Radiological diagnosis was made by conventional x-ray in 2 dimensions and nuclear magnetic resonance. Together with radiological, histological, microbiological and laboratory investigation we found 11 patients with a specific tuberculosis of the spine, 25 patients with a pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis and 4 patients with a post-nucleotomy osteomyelitis. 14 patients underwent operative treatment. All patients were mobilized in an individual brace after CRP and ESR indicated remission of inflammation. DURATION OF HOSPITAL TREATMENT: Duration of the hospital treatment lasted between 33 and 137 days. At follow-up 12 months after demission 35 patients were free of symptoms, two patients had still signs of osteomyelitis, two patients, one of them with recurrence of spondylitis, were reoperated because of dislocation of the implants, and one patient died after surgery suffering from severe peritonitis and multi-organ-failure.
Discussion: We report pathogenesis and the current diagnostic and therapeutic concept of treatment of the vertebral osteomyelitis. Despite modern diagnostic possibilities, diagnosis of vertebral osteomyelitis is often made very late. Vertebral osteomyelitis is an important differential diagnosis for persistent back pain and needs to be considered more often.