Postoperative spinal infection is a potentially severe complication. Despite the use of preoperative prophylactic antibiotics, advances in surgical procedure and postoperative treatment, wound infection tends to threaten the outcome of patients after spinal surgery, the frequency of postoperative spinal infections rises as the time of operation increase. Discectomy is associated with a risk of infection of less than 1%; spinal fusion without instrumentation is associated with a risk of 1% -5%, and instrumentation fusion can be associated with a risk of 6% or more, CRP is a more sensitive predictor of postoperative spinal infection, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most useful study to diagnose postoperative spinal infection, Traditional spinal infection treatment protocol is early identification and culture-specific antibiotic administration, in the absence of improvement after six weeks of antibiotics and bracing, open biopsy, surgical debridement, and stabilization may be needed.
AIM OF THE WORK
The aim of this study was to analyze the risk factor of postoperative spinal infection and to describe a management protocol for those patients.