A 3-year-old boy with kyphosis, back mass and weakness.

Spinal tuberculosis (TB) in children is uncommon. The authors report a case of a 3-year-old boy who was diagnosed with TB spondylitis. He presented to the hospital with a back mass, back pain and inability to walk. He failed to receive TB prophylaxis after having been in close contact to his mother who had pulmonary TB. He received incision and drainage and continued on anti-TB regimens without complications. At 4-month follow-up, he was able to stand and walk without assistance. It is important to carry out contact investigations and provide TB prophylaxis to children who have had a history of contacting TB index cases to prevent TB disease and serious complications of TB infection.

Is spinal tuberculosis contagious?

While pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections are recognized for their public health implications, less is known about the infectiousness of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, specifically, spinal tuberculosis or Pott's disease. We present a case of spinal tuberculosis with concomitant active pulmonary tuberculosis in the absence of chest radiographic abnormalities or symptoms, and review the literature regarding infectiousness of concomitant spinal and pulmonary tuberculosis.

Congenital spinal tuberculosis associated with asymptomatic endometrial tuberculosis: A rare case report.

Spinal tuberculosis constitutes 50% of all musculoskeletal tuberculosis. However, literature regarding congenital spinal tuberculosis is very scanty. Congenital spinal tuberculosis was diagnosed in a two-month-old child on the basis of age at presentation (gibbus since three weeks of age), hepatomegaly, raised ESR, radiological destruction of D10-D11 vertebrae, asymptomatic maternal endometrial tuberculosis and tuberculous histopathology from CT guided biopsy specimen from D10 vertebra. Both child and mother were treated by antitubercular treatment. Child improved symptomatically, gibbus became less prominent and ESR became normal at the end of one year of treatment. Patient had no recurrence during last two years of follow-up. This is the first case of congenital tuberculosis of spine with a documented source of infection from asymptomatic maternal endometrial tuberculosis. CT guided core biopsy from vertebra/aspiration from the paravertebral abscess help in early diagnosis and treatment to reduce neurological morbidity and mortality. Endometrial biopsy help in establishing the diagnosis of congenital tuberculosis and adequate antitubercular treatment in such cases may provide protection to fetus in subsequent pregnancy.

Spinal tuberculosis deserves a place on the radar screen.

Spinal involvement may be the first manifestation of tuberculosis and the problem that drives the patient to seek medical care. Spinal tuberculosis (often called Pott's disease) is by definition advanced disease, requiring meticulous assessment and aggressive systemic therapy. Physicians should keep the diagnosis in mind, especially in a patient from a group with a high rate of tuberculosis infection.

[A case of posterior tuberculous spondylitis of the lumbar vertebra with the skull inoculated by acupuncture].

A 77-year-old male consulted an orthopedist with complaints of lumbago and a lumbar swelling, and was treated with acupuncture. As the symptoms deteriorated, and smear of a specimen aspirated from the lumbar swelling was positive for acid fast bacilli which were later identified as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, he was hospitalized in the National Chiba Higashi Hospital. On admission to our hospital, CT-scan of lumbar vertebrae showed the destructive change of spinous process of the third lumbar vertebra accompanied by the abscess formation, and an occipital swelling with the destructive change of skull was also detected. Whole body examinations with CT-scan and bronchoscopy did not reveal any other abnormal findings suspective of tuberculous lesions. The above lesions were both gradually improved by antituberculous chemotherapy with INH, RFP, and EB. He was finally diagnosed as posterior tuberculous spondylitis of the lumbar vertebra with cold abscess, and also clinically diagnosed as skull tuberculosis caused presumably by the inoculation of tubercle bacilli from the lumbar lesion by acupuncture.