Retrospective Study of 967 Patients With Spinal Tuberculosis

China is a country with a high tuberculosis (TB) burden. Spinal TB is one reason for the resurgence of TB in China. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical and epidemiological features of patients with spinal TB in a teaching hospital of Southwest China. The study group comprised 967 patients with spinal TB who were admitted to the authors' institution from 1999 to 2013. Demographic characteristics, prevalence of symptoms and clinical manifestations, prevalence of multidrug resistance and extensive drug resistance of spinal TB, management and outcome, and incidence of complications were recorded and analyzed. The patients included 473 women and 494 men with a mean age of 35.86 +/- 15.68 years. The most common presentation of spinal TB was back pain, followed by night sweats and fever. The thoracic spine was the most commonly involved level, followed by the lumbar spine and cervical spine. The incidence of neurological involvement in spinal TB is 33.3%. Noncontiguous spinal TB was seen in 3.41% of cases. The incidence of concomitant pulmonary TB was 14.37%. A total of 740 patients were successfully treated with surgery and anti-TB drugs. No mortality was related to spinal TB. Spinal TB increased every year from 1999 to 2013 in Southwest China. Back pain is the most common clinical symptom, and the thoracic spine is the vertebral body most often involved. The most commonly used first-and second-line anti-TB drugs are isoniazid and levofloxacin, respectively.