Salmonella spondylitis in the thoracic spine

Salmonella spondylitis is a rare type of infectious disease in the spine with an incidence of less than 1%. Early diagnosis and antibiotic treatment is essential and percutaneous transpedicular biopsy is a minimally invasive technique used to prove the infection. Here we report a 60-year-old woman with a 40-year history of duodenal ulcer, who was admitted with lower-back pain and weakness in the lower limbs complicated with low-grade fever and abdominal pain, which had developed one week before admission. Radiographs of the thoracic spine revealed destructive lesions over the endplates of T11-T12 and magnetic resonance (MR) images demonstrated fluid accumulation with endplate erosion of T11-T12. Empiric antibiotic treatment with oxacillin had no effect, so percutaneous transpedicular biopsy was performed. Salmonella C1 group bacteria were identified from cultures. The patient's symptoms subsided after six weeks of ceftriaxone treatment, and she was discharged without any neurological deficits.