A study of 49 patients with acute spinal extradural abscess

Abstract

Forty-nine patients (25 female, 24 male) whose abscess was diagnosed at laminectomy were studied. Their ages ranged from II to 69 years. The interval between the onset of the paralysis and operation varied between a few hours and three months. Forty-six patients had dorsal and three had cervical neurological syndromes. All patients suffered back pain. Where the records showed it, 3 I of the abscesses were infected with Staphylococcus aureus. There was a history of peripheral sepsis in 26 patients and no evidence of sepsis in 21. There was a history of trauma only, probably affecting the back, in eight patients; and of trauma and peripheral sepsis in three. Only five patients walked without the use of calipers post-operatively; one of these subsequently deteriorated. © 1973 Nature Publishing Group.