Spinal cord compression from spinal tuberculosis in a child

Tuberculosis in children most frequently involves the pulmonary system. Spinal tuberculosis is very rare and insidious in children. We present a 1-year-old girl who was brought to our clinic with complaints of a bulge on her back and weakness in the feet. She was investigated with magnetic resonance imaging and at the thoracic level which revealed vertebral destruction and para- and perispinal abscess. Computed tomography of the lungs showed tuberculous lesions. The child's mother gave a post history of recovered lung tuberculosis. Due to appearance paraparesis secondary to vertebral destruction, we removed the abscess and infected bone and reconstruction was carried out with fibular allograft anteriorly. Tuberculosis bacilli were isolated from the postoperative biopsy culture. In this study, we evaluated the methods of diagnosis and treatment of spiral tuberculosis according to the studies and publications which have been done previously. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel.