Discitis – Infection of the Intervertebral Disc

After describing the main characteristics of the desease, the author presents several cases of discitis in order to illustrate the difficult diagnosis due to the misleading clinical picture. The desease occurs most frequently as a complication of major abdominal operations and surgery of a ruptured intervertebral disc. Operative treatment should be reserved only for patients with neurological signs complicating the usually benign natural course of the desease.