Septic arthritis of the facet joint

Acute medullar compression secondary to a septic arthritis of a thoracic facet joint: a case report and review of literature

“…This thoracic localisation is very unusual for SAFJ (4.5% incidence according to Narváez et al [3]). There are only three more cases described in the literature with SAFJ in the thoracic spine [3,7,10]. Diabetes mellitus and other immunosuppressive diseases such as chronic liver disease, alcoholism or corticosteroid therapy have been described as risk factors to develop SAFJ [2,3,[6][7][8].…”

“…There are only three more cases described in the literature with SAFJ in the thoracic spine [3,7,10]. Diabetes mellitus and other immunosuppressive diseases such as chronic liver disease, alcoholism or corticosteroid therapy have been described as risk factors to develop SAFJ [2,3,[6][7][8]. There have been cases of iatrogenic infection after invasive procedures like epidural injection, acupuncture or spinal surgery [3][4][5][6]11].…”

“…MRI remains as the gold standard for image diagnose [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Plain radiographs are not useful for diagnosis of SAFJ in early stages because radiologic abnormalities appear 6 to 12 weeks after the onset of symptoms [1-3, 5, 6].…”

“…It can begin with very mild symptoms and could be very similar to spondylodiscitis. According to the literature, about 1 month is the average delay between symptoms and diagnosis of SAFJ [2,3,6,7]. Fever is present at the beginning of symptoms in 60-80% of the cases [2,3,7].…”

“…According to the literature, about 1 month is the average delay between symptoms and diagnosis of SAFJ [2,3,6,7]. Fever is present at the beginning of symptoms in 60-80% of the cases [2,3,7]. Due to the seriousness of the consequences of a delayed diagnosis and treatment of SAFJ, it becomes very important to include this entity in the differential diagnosis for back pain with or without fever.…”