Spondylodiscitis and HIV – Diagnosis and Treatment Strategies

1.1 Spinal infections 1.1.1 History Infection of the spine is a disease with a long, well-documented history. Excavations of human skeletons from an archaeological site from the Iron Age showed likely cases of individual spinal infection (Tayles & Buckley, 2004). Tuberculosis of the spine is often described as Pott’s disease; the pattern of the disease was reported by Percivall Pott in the year 1779 (Sir D’Arcy Power, 1923). A case series of 102 patients with pyogenic spinal osteomyelitis was reported in the year 1936 (Kulowski, 1936).