Background
There are still controversies over the treatment and outcomes in culture-negative pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis (PVO). The purpose of this study is to investigate the antimicrobial therapy, assessment of therapeutic response, and outcome of culture-negative PVO compared to culture-positive PVO.
Methods
Retrospective study was performed with non-surgical lumbar PVO. The patients were divided into two groups based on the causative bacterial identification (CN group with culture-negative and CP group with culture-positive). The clinical features, use of antibiotics, laboratory data, and outcomes were compared between the two groups.
Results
Seventy-three patients with 41 (56.2%) of the CN group and 32 (43.8%) of the CP group were enrolled. Group CN showed a shorter duration of parenteral antibiotics (45.88 ± 16.14 vs. 57.31 ± 24.39, p = 0.019) although a tendency of prolonged duration of total (parenteral + oral) antibiotics (101.17 ± 52.84 vs. 84.19 ± 50.29 days, p = 0.168). When parenteral antibiotics were discontinued or switched to oral antibiotics, erythrocyte segmentation rate (ESR, normal range: < 20 mm/h), C-reactive protein (CRP, normal range: < 0.5 mg/dL), and visual analogue scale (VAS) score for back pain were 42.86 ± 24.05 mm/h, 0.91 ± 1.18 mg/dL, and 4.05 ± 1.07, respectively, with no significant differences between the two groups. The recurrence rates of CN and CP groups were 7.3% (3/41) and 6.3% (2/32), respectively (p = 1.000).
Conclusions
CN group required a shorter duration of parenteral antibiotics than CP group. Discontinuation of parenteral antibiotics or changing administration route can be considered based on the values of ESR, CRP, and VAS score for back pain.