Acta ortopédica mexicana
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Acta ortopédica mexicana · Jul 2014
Case Reports[Spondylodiscitis due to Fusobacterium nucleatum: new diagnostic method].
Fusobacterium spp. are Gram negative anaerobe bacteria. Vertebral osteomyelitis caused by these bacteria is very unusual; in fact, we could only find 11 cases in the literature. We report the case of a male, 46 year-old patient who had had lumbar pain for several weeks that irradiated to the right leg, and did not respond to NSAID treatment. ⋯ Final treatment consisted of clindamycin. In conclusion, spondylodiscitis due to Fusobacterium spp. is a rare and difficult to diagnose entity, due both to its clinical characteristics and to the difficulty in making the right microbiologic diagnosis. Vertebral biopsy and molecular microbiologic techniques such as Universal PCR rDNa, are essential to identifying the organism, making the diagnosis and prescribing appropriate antibiotic therapy.