BACKGROUND Spinal epidural abscess is an uncommon disease with a relatively high rate of associated morbidity and mortality. The most important determinant of outcome is early diagnosis and initiation of appropriate treatment. OBJECTIVES We aim to highlight the clinical manifestations, describe the early diagnostic evaluation, and outline the treatment principles for spinal epidural abscess i...

A 67 year old man with longstanding rheumatoid disease was referred to the regional spinal surgery unit with acute onset of paraparesis due to an extensive spinal epidural abscess of the lumbar spine. Ten months previously, he had started antibiotic treatment at another hospital for an epidural abscess arising at the level of the L2-3 disc space. Despite completing seven months of medical treat...

Case In rare cases, spinal epidural abscess involves the entire spine and can lead to neurological deficits and sepsis if treatment is delayed or suboptimal. A 65-year-old man was admitted with a diagnosis of bacterial meningitis. After admission, magnetic resonance imaging showed a spinal epidural abscess from the cervical to lumbar spine. Blood culture revealed Staphylococcus aureus. The pati...

INTRODUCTION Epidural abscess is the commonest intracranial complication of acute mastoiditis. In some cases this entity may pose a diagnostic problem. MATERIALS AND METHODS We report a case of acute mastoiditis followed by an epidural abscess in the middle cranial fossa and a bone fistula to subtemporal fossa. Localization of the abscess was revealed by means of computed tomography and magne...

BACKGROUND The true incidence of serious neuraxial complications such as epidural hematoma or abscess after postoperative epidural infusions is still uncertain, in part due to inconsistencies in multicenter data collection. METHODS Prospective data were collected over 16 yr from the authors' Acute Pain Service, which is based in a large tertiary teaching institution with a nonobstetric genera...

Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) was first described in the medical literature in 1761 and represents a severe infection of the epidural space requiring emergent neurosurgical intervention to avoid permanent neurologic deficits [1]. Epidural abscess is a rare condition, with a reported incidence of 1 ± 2 / 10.000 of all patients admitted to hospital [2]. It is generally thought to be a "very rare,...

Kouki S, et al. BMJ Case Rep 2017. doi:10.1136/bcr-2017-219458 Description A 59-year-old patient was admitted to the rheumatology department with cervicobrachial neuralgia in the upper extremities and paresthesia. The symptoms appeared 3 months ago. Physical examination showed neck stiffness with decreased sensitivity in the territory of the C4 root in both arms. There was no motor weakness or ...

INTRODUCTION Ventral cervical spinal epidural abscess is a very rare clinical condition with a relatively high morbidity and mortality. Due to the paucity of reported cases there is heterogeneity and no clear "gold standard" in the treatment of these patients. OBJECTIVE The authors report four consecutive patients with ventral cervical spinal epidural abscess treated with anterior cervical di...

Spinal cord glioblastoma (SG) accounts for 1.5% of all spinal tumors and has a poor prognosis with survival ranging from 2 to 26 months from presentation. A 57-year-old male presented with one week of paraparesis and contrasted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of an epidural enhancing thoracic mass suspicious for an epidural abscess. Intraoperative and pathologic findings revealed SG. ...

A case of spinal epidural abscess following epidural anesthesia is described. Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance images were essential in diagnosis of the abscess without frank pus formation, in defining the extension of the infection, and in assessing the therapeutic effect. The patient was successfully treated non-operatively before neurological symptoms developed and full recovery was ac...