Suspected disk space infection with negative microbiological tests—report of eight cases and comparison with documented pyogenic discitis

Diagnosis, management and outcome of clinically- suspected spinal infection

“…3 Few data are available in the literature on features and outcome of SI cases without a microbiological diagnosis. 18,19 In this report, we present the results of a retrospective analysis of patients with spontaneous SI of undefined etiology compared to patients with pyogenic and tuberculous cases.…”

Postprocedural discitis of the vertebral spine: challenges in diagnosis, treatment and prevention

“…Gillard et al compared eight culture-negative cases with 18 age-and sex-matched controls with microbiological confirmation of pyogenic discitis. 32 Culture-negative patients were less likely to have nerve pain or severe neurological impairment, and CRP levels were lower in this group. It is not clear, however, if patients with negative microbiology are genuinely non-infected cases or infected cases where no cause has been identified.…”

Bacteriological features of infectious spondylodiscitis at Mohammed V Military Teaching Hospital of Rabat

“…of infectious spondylodiscitis, bacteriological tests are negative and this even if there are no technical mistakes in the diagnostic process (7). The negativity could be linked to germs known to grow with difficulty on culture medium such as N.…”

“…gonorrhoeae, N. meningitidis, Listeria monocytogenes, or germs needing special diagnostic tools such as Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma urealyticum (7). In such cases, there is a difficulty with linking spondylodiscitis to an infectious cause.…”