Noncontiguous Multiple Spinal Tuberculosis

● Received: September 5, 2014 ● Revised: November 2, 2014 ● Accepted: November 4, 2014 Corresponding Author: Sim Sai Tin, MD Medical Center, Shantou, China Tel: +866624132436, Fax: +866624132436 E-mail: [email protected] ◯∝This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dear Editor, we would like to discuss on the publication on “noncontiguous multiple spinal tuberculosis.” Kim et al. noted that “the disease should be considered in differential diagnosis along with other diseases such as metastatic neoplasm, pyogenic spondylitis, especially when the radiologic studies are revealing multiple spinal lesions” As noted by Kim, “multi-level noncontiguous, remote vertebral tuberculosis” is not common and sometimes difficult to diagnose. To diagnose the case, the microbiological diagnosis is sometimes not available and presumptive diagnosis is used. The use of antituberculosis drug is needed and surgery might be used in cases with “large abscess formation, severe kyphosis, an evolving neurological deficit, or lack of response to medical treatment.” The challenge in the case with noncontiguous multiple spinal tuberculosis is the multiple level surgery. Based on the experience reported from Taiwan of China, it is noted that “decompression at all lesion levels” should be used in a patient with multiple-level compression symptom. REFERENCES