Overview of the Complications and Sequelae in Spinal Infections

Spinal infection: Assessing comorbidities and costs to inform patient management and resource use strategies

“…Spinal infection (SI), a complex disease process which includes vertebral osteomyelitis, discitis, and epidural abscess, has been shown to be increasing in both regional and national evaluations [ 1 , 2 ]. Risk factors associated with SI include opioid substance abuse (OSA), multiple drug substance abuse (MDSA), diabetes mellitus (DM), prior spinal surgery, endocarditis, chronic kidney disease (CKD), cirrhosis, malnutrition, and HIV [ [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] ]. Rising rates of OSA, MDSA, malnutrition, and DM since 2003 have been suggested as factors in the concurrent increased frequency of hospitalizations for SI [ 1 , 2 ].…”