Tuberculosis of the lower cervical spine (C5-C6) in a 24-month-old infant

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) of the cervical spine occurs rarely in younger children whereas the presentation and outcome are different from those of adult cervical spine. Because cervical spinal TB in younger children is rarely reported, the clinical characteristics, the treatments, and the expected outcome of treatments in younger children are still unknown.

Methods: We present a case of cervical spine TB in a 24-month-old boy that grounds severe vertebral destruction and an extradural abscess. This child presented with neurological deficit in the form of quadraparesis. We performed anterior cervical debridement for this patient; to our best knowledge, the child in this case is the youngest patient reported in the literature as having had cervical TB treated through anterior cervical surgery.

Results: The neurological deficits of this patient were recovered soon, and no evidence of recurrence of the tuberculous lesion or of the deformity was revealed by the 6-year follow-up magnetic resonance imaging.

Conclusions: Based on our experiences in this case and a review of the literature, we propose that for patients of cervical spine TB in early childhood, anterior excision of diseased bone without grafting should be adequate as a surgical measure.

Keywords: Cervical spine; Extradural abscess; Pott disease; Tuberculosis.