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Culture Yield in the Diagnosis of Native Vertebral Osteomyelitis: A Single Tertiary Center Retrospective Case Series With Literature Review

Authors/contributors
Abstract
Abstract Background Vertebral osteomyelitis is a serious condition that requires prompt diagnosis to avoid delays in proper management. There is no well-defined gold standard for diagnosis. We describe the current diagnostic approach at our institution, with a focus on the yield of image-guided vertebral biopsy. Methods We performed a single-centre 10-year retrospective case series, including adults with imaging suggestive of vertebral osteomyelitis/discitis, with either positive blood cultures, and/or a vertebral biopsy. We defined positive histopathology as our gold standard for test characteristic evaluation of biopsy cultures. Results Out of 694 patients identified, 221 met our inclusion criteria, and 173/221 (78.2%) patients underwent a spinal biopsy. Of those patients with biopsies, 113 (65%) had received antibiotics within 2 weeks preceding their evaluation. Six of 43 (13.9%) bone specimens were positive by culture, while 66/152 (43.4%) of disc specimens were culture positive. Forty-seven of 84 (55.9%) histopathology (bone or disc) specimens were diagnostic for osteomyelitis/discitis. The sensitivity of bone and disk culture were 30.0% and 56.0%, respectively, with specificities of 92.8% and 75.0%, respectively. Twenty-three (13.4%) patients had repeat biopsies, including 10 bone specimens and 14 disc specimens, and 11 (47.8%) specimens had histopathology performed which diagnosed an additional 3/23 patients (13% additional diagnostic yield). Conclusions Culture of percutaneous biopsy of disc resulted in the highest diagnostic yield. Histopathology added to the diagnostic yield in culture-negative specimens. Histopathologic evaluation of bone had better yield than bone culture. A repeat biopsy can add to the diagnostic yield.
Publication
Open Forum Infectious Diseases
Date
2022-03-01
Notes

Level of evidence - low (case series)

Citation
1.
Weihe R, Taghlabi K, Lowrance M, et al. Culture Yield in the Diagnosis of Native Vertebral Osteomyelitis: A Single Tertiary Center Retrospective Case Series With Literature Review. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2022;9(3):ofac026.