A rare etiology of cauda equina syndrome

Fungal infections of the spine are very rare and usually seen in immunocompromised patients. Acute cauda equina syndrome presenting in an immunocompetent patient is usually due to a prolapse of the intervertebral disc. Infective pathology caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis with epidural collectio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sumit Batra, Sumit Arora, Hemant Meshram, Geetika Khanna, Shabnam B Grover, Vinod K Sharma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries 2010-08-01
Series:Journal of Infection in Developing Countries
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Online Access:https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/1001
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Summary:Fungal infections of the spine are very rare and usually seen in immunocompromised patients. Acute cauda equina syndrome presenting in an immunocompetent patient is usually due to a prolapse of the intervertebral disc. Infective pathology caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis with epidural collection can also have a similar presentation. We present a case of spinal epidural abscess caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, presenting as acute cauda equina syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, spinal aspergillosis presenting as cauda equina syndrome in an immunocompetent patient has not been reported before in the English-language based medical literature. Surgical decompression with antifungal treatment with oral itraconazole yielded a good recovery.
ISSN:1972-2680