Journal of vascular and interventional radiology : JVIR
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J Vasc Interv Radiol · Jan 2021
Defining Disc Biopsy Timing in Relation to Blood Culture Results for Inpatients with Suspected Discitis-Osteomyelitis.
To determine optimal timing of biopsy for suspected discitis-osteomyelitis (DOM) with respect to preliminary blood culture results and the effect of biopsy timing on hospital length of stay (LOS). ⋯ Waiting 2 days for preliminary blood culture results could avoid disc/vertebral biopsy in 20% of patients and does not significantly impact hospital LOS. Additionally, clinical factors (sepsis, WBC count, CRP, and ESR) do not have predictive value for positive disc biopsy results.