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Rare disease
CASE REPORT
Cervical facet joint septic arthritis: a real pain in the neck
  1. Sahiba Sethi,
  2. Mathew Kurian Vithayathil
  1. Accident and Emergency, King's College Hospital, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Mathew Kurian Vithayathil, mathew.vithayathil{at}doctors.org.uk

Summary

A 64-year-old man with a complex medical history and previous cervical arthritis with discectomy presents with a 2-day history of neck and lower back pain and shortness of breath, associated with left-sided muscle weakness. He has a fever with severe sepsis causing acute renal failure. MRI spine shows evidence of left cervical facet joint septic arthritis at C6-T1. He required 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotics and intensive support with ventilation and haemofiltration. After completion of antibiotics, he made a full recovery and regained neurological function before discharge.

  • Bone And Joint Infections
  • Neuroimaging

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2016-218510

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors SS and MKV both saw the patient in the acute setting and looked after them. The both wrote the case report and conducted the literature review for the topic.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.