Cervical spinal brucellosis causing epidural and prevertebral abscesses and spinal cord compression: a case report.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Cervical involvement due to spinal brucellosis is quite rare. Although surgery usually is not necessary in spinal brucellosis, most of the patients with cervical involvement require surgical treatment because of the high rate of neurological involvement and spinal cord compression. PURPOSE: To present a unique case with cervical spinal brucellosis with epidural and paravertebral abscesses and to discuss the treatment alternatives of this disease. STUDY DESIGN: A case report. METHODS: A 61-year-old patient with spinal cord compression syndrome due to cervical spinal brucellosis was reported. He was treated by triplet antibiotherapy for 24 weeks. On magnetic resonance imaging, spinal cord compression caused by epidural abscess and granulation tissue, and prevertebral abscess were seen. RESULTS: At the end of the treatment, there were no complaints, neurological findings, or positive infection markers. There was not epidural compression on control magnetic resonance imaging. CONCLUSIONS: Surgery may not be required in all cervical spinal brucellosis cases with epidural compression and neurological involvement. Conservative treatment with close observation may be sufficient in these patients who are usually older people.

Delayed infection 6 years after spinal instrumentation: a case report.

Infection is the major and important complication of spinal instrumentation generally requiring removal of the implant. Although findings of infection usually appear within a few months after operation, they may appear even after few years in some cases. A case with delayed postoperative infection 6 years after surgery is reported. A 27-year-old female with purulent flow from her anterolateral skin incision scar was diagnosed as delayed spinal infection 6 years after anterior and posterior combined spinal instrumentation performed for treatment of giant cell tumor of L3 vertebral body. Staphylococcus aureus was detected from purulent flow. Infection was treated by removal of the implant and antibiotherapy. Spinal infection after instrumentation may appear even a few years later. Patients must therefore be carefully followed for a long time. Staphylococcus aureus can stay silent for a long time.

Aggressive postoperative lumbar fibromatosis after the placement of instrumentation for treatment of spondylolisthesis. Case report.

This 50-year-old woman presented with a paravertebral lumbar fibromatosis (desmoid tumor) after undergoing the placement of instrumentation for lumbar spondylolisthesis. The tumor developed just cranial to the previous skin incision. Fibromatoses, or desmoid tumors, are uncommon infiltrative lesions that affect musculoaponeurotic structures, most often of the trunk and limbs. They are known to occur in association with surgery-related scars or implants and only rare examples appear in the neurosurgical and spine-related literature. In cases involving well-defined tumors in which radical resection is possible, surgery is the treatment of choice; however, the recurrence rate is high. The patient in the present case was followed for 14 months postoperatively and did not undergo radiotherapy; there was no recurrence. Although rare, this distinctive tumor should be considered in the differential diagnosis of postoperative paravertebral bulgings after neurosurgical and spinal operations.

A solitary calvarial lytic lesion with typical histopathological findings of juvenile hyaline fibromatosis.

Juvenile hyaline fibromatosis (JHF) is a rare systemic disease characterized by papulonodular skin lesions, gingival hyperplasia, joint contractures, and osteolytic lesions on long bones and the skull. It has recently been reported that the disease is caused by mutations in the gene encoding capillary morphogenesis protein-2 (CMG-2). To date, fewer than 60 cases have been published in the literature. Partial disease expression is common, but no cases featuring a solitary calvarial lesion have been reported. The authors discuss this 4-year-old boy with a solitary calvarial osteolytic lesion whose histopathological examination exhibited findings characteristic of JHF. Mutational analysis, however, revealed that there were no mutations in the CMG-2 gene. Two years after surgery, he was free of any complaints as well as gingival hyperplasia, joint contractures, and new skull or skin lesions. This patient's condition may represent clinical or genetic heterogeneity associated with JHF. Whether solitary lesions mimicking JHF can arise from somatic mutation of the CMG-2 gene remains to be proven.

Thoracic and lumbar tuberculous spondylitis treated by posterior debridement, graft placement, and instrumentation: a retrospective analysis in 19 cases.

OBJECT: Surgical treatment of thoracic and lumbar tuberculous spondylitis is controversial. An anterior approach is usually recommended. The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of posterior debridement and the placement of posterior instrumentation for the treatment of patients with thoracic and lumbar tuberculous spondylitis. METHODS: Nineteen patients with thoracic and lumbar tuberculous spondylitis underwent single-stage posterior decompression and debridement as well as the placement of posterior interbody grafts if necessary, instrumentation and posterior or posterolateral grafts. No postoperative neurological deterioration was noted. One patient died of myocardial infarction on Day 10. The mean follow-up duration, excluding the one death, was 52.7 months (range 16-125 months). In a 70-year-old patient, a single pedicle screw broke after 3 months. All patients were in better neurological condition after surgery and at the last follow-up examination. Neurological deficits were present in only two patients at the last follow up (one American Spinal Injury Association Grade B and one Grade C deficit preoperatively). Three other patients suffered intermittent back or low-back pain. The mean angulation measured in 13 patients with kyphotic deformity was 18.2 degrees (range 5-42 degrees) preoperatively; this was reduced to 17.3 degrees (range 0-42 degrees) after surgery. There was a 2.8 degrees loss of correction (range 2-5 degrees) after 44.3 months (16-64 months). Kyphosis did not progress beyond 15 months in any patient. CONCLUSIONS: A posterior approach in combination with internal fixation and posterior or posterolateral fusion (with or without placement of posterior interbody grafts) may be sufficient for the debridement of the infection and to allow spinal stabilization in patients with thoracic and lumbar tuberculous spondylitis. This procedure is associated with easy access to the spinal canal for neural decompression, prevention of loss of corrected vertebral alignment in the long term, and facilitation of early mobilization.

Non-contiguous multifocal spinal tuberculosis involving cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral segments: a case report.

MAIN PROBLEM: There are only a few cases reported with non-contiguous spinal tuberculosis in the literature. Most of these patients have only two non-contiguous lesions, and in almost all of these cases, surgical treatment is required. METHODS: A 17-year-old girl with non-contiguous multifocal spinal tuberculosis involving cervical, thoracic, thoracolumbar, lumbar and sacral segments is reported. The patient presented with systemic tuberculosis symptoms and signs, and progressive paraparesis. RESULTS: The patient was treated with antituberculous drug therapy and was operated twice for thoracolumbar and cervical spinal lesions. She made an excellent neurological recovery. CONCLUSIONS: In the patients with non-contiguous spinal involvement, there is a high percentage of requirement of surgical treatment. This may be due to "fulminant" behaviour of the disease in these patients. Early surgical treatment of the cases with large abscesses and systemic tuberculosis may provide early improvement, and must probably be the first treatment modality after general support to the patient.

Accuracy of pedicle screw placement for upper and middle thoracic pathologies without coronal plane spinal deformity using conventional methods.

There is a growing interest in the implantation of pedicle screws into the middle and upper thoracic spine. However, usage of the technique is still under debate for these levels because the pedicles in these regions are small and exhibit a high degree of inter- and intraspecimen variability. Twenty-four consecutive patients treated for upper and middle thoracic pathologies by pedicle screw instrumentation under biplanar or uniplanar fluoroscopy were evaluated retrospectively. The rate of screw misplacement on postoperative computerized tomography and complications caused by misplaced screws were determined. In 24 cases, a total of 113 upper-middle thoracic pedicle screws were inserted. Fifty-one of them were inserted between T2 and T5 with guidance of biplanar fluoroscopy, and 62 were inserted between T6 and T8 with uniplanar fluoroscopy. The rate of misplacement was 20.3% for 113 screws (27.4% for T2 to T5 screws, and 14.5% for 62 T6 to T8 screws). Four screws were incorrectly inserted which could have clinical significance (3.5%), and 1 of them required revision. The difference between the upper and middle thoracic screws was not statistically significant (P=0.089). Screw insertion with laminectomy did not cause significant difference in both upper and middle thoracic regions. Only 2 complications were seen because of screw insertion. Pedicle screw insertion with guidance of fluoroscopy may be a reliable and safe method for upper and middle thoracic pathologies.

Paradoxical intracranial tuberculoma requiring surgical treatment.

Paradoxical enlargement of intracranial tuberculomas or development of new ones during adequate antituberculous chemotherapy is an uncommon event. Treatment of such cases is controversial. Steroid therapy is usually advocated without change in the antituberculous drug program. However, in some patients whose lesions fail medical treatment, or who have superficially located large lesions, surgical therapy may be required. A 15-year-old girl with pulmonary miliary tuberculosis, tuberculous meningitis and multiple intracranial tuberculomas is presented. While her pulmonary lesions and intracranial tuberculomas except one were healed with chemotherapy, one tuberculoma increased in size 1 month after starting chemotherapy. She was followed with dexamethasone treatment in addition to antituberculous therapy for 2 months. Then, the lesion was removed because it had increased in size in spite of appropriate chemotherapy.