• Jorge Juan Fragío Gil, Roxana González Mazarío, Miguel Salavert Lleti, and Román Ivorra José Andrés JA Rheumatology Department, Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe, Valencia, Spain..
• Rheumatology Department, Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe, Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: jorgefragio@gmail.com.
• Med Clin (Barc). 2020 Oct 23; 155 (8): 335-339.

Introduction/ObjectivesTo describe the clinical, radiological and microbiological characteristics of vertebral osteomyelitis patients, analysing the factors that played a role on their outcome.Patients And MethodsSingle-centre retrospective observational study including patients diagnosed with vertebral osteomyelitis, based on the combination of clinical presentation with either a definitive bacteriological diagnosis and/or imaging studies.Results116 adult patients were included with a mean age of 62.75 (14.98) years. Males predominated (68.10%). Eighteen patients (15.51%) were immunosuppressed. The most frequent symptom was back pain (99.14%) followed by fever, which was detected in 45 patients (38.79%). Puncture-aspiration or biopsy was performed in 84 patients (72.10%) and its culture was positive in 48 samples (57.14%). Gram positive species predominated (73.86%) on cultures, followed by Gram negative (12.5%), mycobacteria (10.23%) and fungi (3.41%). No microorganism was identified in 28 patients (24.14%). On imaging, most of the patients (92.24%) had paravertebral or epidural abscess. 63 cases (54.31%) showed vertebral destruction and 39 (33.62%) cord compression. Twenty-two patients (18.97%) required further surgical procedures and 13 (11.21%) died.ConclusionsThe average patient is middle aged (often male) with a history of subacute back pain, sometimes presenting fever and/or neurological damage on diagnosis. Acute phase reactants are frequently raised. Diabetes mellitus, endocarditis and immunosuppressed patients may have the worst chance of a good outcome, therefore these patients should be more carefully managed (always try to obtain an imaging-guided biopsy, correct antibiotic treatment, and a functional and clinical follow-up).Copyright © 2020 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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