clinical features
Last reviewed 01/2018
The clinical features of a spinal abscess depend on the stage at which it presents:
- acute:
- severe pain at the level of the abscess, exacerbated by movement and associated with local muscle spasm
- neck stiffness
- patient systemically unwell
- neurological dysfunction with increasing cord compression
- eventually, thrombophlebitis of the dural and cord vessels with subsequent total hemiplegia and loss of sphincter function.
- chronic - for example, tuberculous abscesses:
- low-grade systemic malaise
- slowly-progressing neurological dysfunction
- occasional acute deterioration due to vertebral collapse