Abstract
To describe epidemiological and clinical features of pyogenic spinal infections in patients treated at the Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Tropical Diseases of the Hospital Na Bulovce in 2010-2014, and to analyse a predictive significance of selected variables. In accordance with previous studies pyogenic spinal infections were diagnosed mainly in elderly with chronic internal comorbidities, mostly with magnetic resonance imaging, they were often localized in lumbar spine, with staphylococci being the leading agents.
In spite of unavailable CT-navigated biopsy, the aetiology was discovered in majority of patients. In contrast, this study found a more frequent posterior segments involvement, a shorter time to treatment, no tuberculous cases, a relatively high case fatality ratio, but less sequelae and no relapse.
The study confirmed an increasing incidence of pyogenic spinal infections, known predisposing factors, importance of MRI in diagnostics, disease predilection in lumbar spine, staphylococcal predominance in causative pathogens, and a relatively high case fatality ratio. Although time to treatment was not proved to be a negative predictive factor of clinical outcome, it is an imperative to strive for an early diagnosis and treatment.
Predictors of clinical outcome have to be evaluated in a more extensive cohort of patients.