Experience in diagnosis and treatment of 112 patients with spine osteomyelitis is presented. In 8 patients cervical spine, in 23 patients thoracic spine and in 81 patients lumbar spine was involved. Neurological deficit was observed in 45 (40.2%) patients. Forty seven (42%) patients underwent conservative and 65(58%) surgical treatment. Conservative treatment included intraarterial injection of antibacterial drugs. Surgical treatment consisted of radical resection of the osteomyelitis focus followed by stabilization of the spine with autografts. Long-term results were evaluated in terms from 1 to 20 years. In all patients the formation of bone block and regression of neurological symptoms was observed.

Osteomyelitis of the spine (OP) is a relatively rare disease. The acute form of OP was first described by Lannelongue in 1897, the chronic form by Wohlgemuth in 1898 [cit. 33]. According to V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky [12], in 1910 Grisel collected only 85 cases of this disease in the literature. Of subsequent early publications, Wilensky [161] and Kulowsky [108] should be noted. By 1964, about 450 patients with OP treated with surgical and conservative methods were described in the literature [46]. In the future, reports of OP are much more common [3,15,16,23,35,39,96].