Fungal Spondylodiscitis: Review

The term spondylodiscitis is an entity that refers to an infection that affects the vertebral body and intervertebral disks. These are commonly caused by pyogenic infections, particularly by Staphylococcus aureus, which responsible for 60% of them. Fungal spinal infections remain a rare pathology, although an increased incidence has been reported due to a progressively more susceptible population (immuno-deficient patient). Fungal spondylodiscitis diagnosis currently relies on the presence of risk factors, microbiology, serological tests (Antigen detection and antibody testing) and imaging such as magnetic resonance with contrast, being the most useful study. The gold standard for establishing a diagnosis of fungal infection is to obtain tissue for histological confirmation or culture; endoscopy is currently the ideal method for sampling. Medical management is the initial approach for most fungal infections of the spine. This usually involves a multidisciplinary approach with anti-fungal therapy under the supervision of infectious disease specialists and bracing with early mobilization, but there are clear indications for surgical treatment where mechanical stabilization by posterior approach and drainage and placement of structured autologous grafts anterior approach, in the same act or a second surgical stage. *Corresponding author: Dr Mario Alberto Cahueque Lemus, Orthopedic Surgeon Centro Médico Nacional de Occidente Hospital, del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, Tel: 00 (52) 1 330704802; E-mail: [email protected] Received April 05, 2016; Accepted April 28, 2016; Published April 30, 2016 Citation: Caldera G, Cahueque M, Cobar A, Gómez G, Rodríguez O (2016) Fungal Spondylodiscitis: Review. J Spine 5: 302. doi:10.4172/2165-7939.1000302 Copyright: © 2016 Caldera G, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.