What is tuberculous spondylitis?
Pott disease, also known as tuberculous spondylitis, is a classic presentation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). It is associated with significant morbidity and can lead to severe functional impairment.
What are the symptoms of TB of the spine?
The characteristic clinical features of spinal tuberculosis include local pain, local tenderness, stiffness and spasm of the muscles, a cold abscess, gibbus, and a prominent spinal deformity. The cold abscess slowly develops when tuberculous infection extends to adjacent ligaments and soft tissues.
How do people get spinal TB?
Tuberculosis is normally spread from person to person through the air. After you contract tuberculosis, it can travel through the blood from the lungs or lymph nodes into the bones, spine, or joints. Bone TB typically begins due to the rich vascular supply in the middle of the long bones and the vertebrae.
Is TB in spine curable?
The major sites affected in bone tb are spine and weight bearing joints. It is a serious condition since it destroys the thoracic and leads to bone deformity. It is extremely important to detect bone tb symptoms as soon as possible. Bone tb is a curable condition if detected soon.
Is tuberculous spondylitis an emergency?
Spinal tuberculosis (STB), also known as tuberculous spondylitis, tuberculous vertebral osteomyelitis, or Pott’s disease is a rare subset of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Although rare in developed countries, STB is an important diagnosis for the emergency physician to consider.
How do you treat bone TB?
Medications – Taking medicines are the first line of treatment for bone TB, and the duration of treatment can last from 6–18 months. The most common medications used for the cure are rifampicin, ethambutol, isoniazid, and pyrazinamide.
Is back pain signs of TB?
Untreated active disease typically affects your lungs, but it can affect other parts of your body, as well. Tuberculosis complications include: Spinal pain. Back pain and stiffness are common complications of tuberculosis.
How do you investigate TB spine?
A history of tuberculosis, a positive skin test (its value declines in endemic areas), and an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) may be useful in the diagnosis of spinal TB [8,9]. Biopsy plays a valuable role in the diagnosis of spinal TB infection.
Is back pain symptoms of TB?
Can MRI detect bone TB?
MRI offers excellent visualization of the bone and soft tissue components of spinal tuberculosis and helps to identify disease at distant asymptomatic sites. CT is useful in assessing bone destruction, but is less accurate in defining the epidural extension of the disease and therefore its effect on neural structures.
Is there a cure for Pott’s disease?
Pott’s disease can be treated through a rigorous medication regimen or surgery. Pott’s Disease is a result of a lack of treatment over a long period of time; conversely, a lengthy period of medication is often needed to fully treat the condition.