Background: The spine is a frequent site of infection but cervical spine localization seems to be rare.
Objective: to determine the frequency and features of cervical spondylodiscitis in patients attending the Sylvanus Olympio University Hospital Center in Togo.
Methods: A retrospective study of patients hospitalized in the Department of Rheumatology over a 20-year period was conducted. The positive diagnosis of infectious spondylodiscitis has been clinical and radiological. The etiological presumption was founded on clinical and epidemiological arguments.
Results: Of the 2881 patients hospitalized, 356 had infectious spondylodiscitis of which 15 cases of cervical spondylodiscitis (eight men and seven women). The average age of these 15 patients was 37 years at the onset of the disease of which the mean disease duration was six months. The disease was essentially located at the levels of C3C4 (seven patients) and C5C6 (four patients). Spondylodiscitis was related to presumptive tuberculosis in 10 patients and banal germ in the remaining five others. There were three HIV infected patients. The onset of the symptomatology was progressive in all the 10 patients suffering from tuberculosis spondylodiscitis. The symptomatology has been characterized by inflammatory pains (10 patients), mechanic pains (five patients), and a gibbosity (four patients).
Conclusion: This study attests of the scarcity of the cervical spondylodiscitis.