Osteomyelitis of the Cervical Spine: Surgical Series

Abstract

With the increase in drug abuse, infectious complications associated with it have become common in neurosurgical practice [1]. Over the past seven years, we have surgically managed 60 cases of osteomyelitis of the spine in two teaching hospitals of Columbia University, Harlem Hospital Center, a 682 bed general hospital which serves the Harlem community, and St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center, a 1300 bed community hospital serving the upper west side of Manhattan. At both hospitals, we take care of many intravenous drug abusers. In this surgical series there have been 17 cervical, 16 thoracic, and 27 lumbar cases. A total of 63 surgical procedures have been performed. All operations have been carried out anteriorly except in 5 cases when the pre-op diagnosis of osteomyelitis had not been known and in one case when a posterior occiput to C₂ fusion was performed.