Surgical therapy of unspecific and specific Spondylodiscitis

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiological results of surgical treatment of thoracic and lumbar vertebral osteomyelitis by means of one-stage extrafocal posterior stabilisation, anterior debridement, and anterior column reconstruction. METHOD: A retrospective analysis of the peri- and postoperative parameters of 62 patients with a clinical and radiographic follow-up of 2.6 years that were available for 46 patients was performed. In 42 cases, the anterior column was restored with structural bone grafts, in 20 patients, expandable titanium cages filled with morsellised autologous bone and antibiotic collagen sponges were used. To assess the course of spinal alignment a radiometric analysis was undertaken. Furthermore, the Roland-Morris score (RMS) was applied to evaluate the back pain-related disability. RESULTS: The diagnosis was made no earlier than 2.7 months after the first symptoms. Preoperatively, 40 % of the patients presented with neurological impairment, of these 76 % improved after surgery. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common pathogen isolated (32 %), Mycobacterium tuberculosis was found in 11 % of the patients. Except for one patient with revision for persistent infection and consecutive failure of the bone graft, primary eradication of the infection was achieved in all cases. At follow-up, bony fusion was radiographically observed in all patients. When using cages, the segmental loss of correction was significantly lower than when using bone grafts (1.0 vs. 4.1 degrees ). At follow-up the RMS averaged 6.6. CONCLUSION: One-stage extrafocal posterior stabilisation combined with anterior debridement and anterior column reconstruction with bone grafts or titanium cages is a safe and effective strategy for patients with vertebral osteomyelitis in need of surgery. Titanium cages have proven to be biomechanically advantageous, especially in cases of extensive destruction and are not associated with higher rates of persistence or recurrence of infection compared to autologous bone grafts.