Introduction. The spine is involved in less than 1% of all tuberculosis (TB)
cases, and it is a very dangerous type of skeletal TB as it can be associated
with neurologic deficit and even paraplegia due to compression of adjacent
neural structures and significant spinal deformity. The spine TB is one of
the most common causes for an angular kyphotic deformity of spine. Patients
with 60 or more degree kyphosis at dorsolumbar spine are at great risk to
develop late onset neurological deficit and paraplegia due to chronic
compression and stretching of the spinal cord over bonny ridges. In small
portion of cases other conditions may lead to neurological deficit in
patients with long standing angular kyphosis which also alters the treatment
strategy that otherwise involves prolonged and mutilant surgery. Case
outline. We present a case of a 61-year-old male patient with concomitant
90-degree dorsolumbar spine kyphosis due to spinal TB and ligamentum flavum
hypertrophy, which led to spinal canal stenosis with myelopathy and
consequent paraplegia. The patient undergoes dorsal decompression with
removal of the hypertrophic yellow ligament after which he recovered to the
level of walking. Conclusion. Many authors propose guidelines for treatment
of spinal TB taking into account the stage of the disease, the age of the
patient, the angle of kyphosis, and other factors. We find that the best
approach for each patient is personalized medical approach.
Cervical Pott’s Disease
