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Crohn's Disease Penetrating into the Spinal Canal
Author(s) -
SACHER M.,
GOPFRICH H.,
HOCHBERGER O.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1989.tb17957.x
Subject(s) - medicine , abscess , surgery , complication , spinal canal , back pain , low back pain , contracture , lumbar , paresis , spinal cord , alternative medicine , pathology , psychiatry
. An 11‐year‐old boy who had suffered from Crohn's disease of the large bowel for 4 years developed high fever, severe back pain and flexion‐contracture of the right hip joint with inability to walk. After several weeks radicular irritation also became apparent. CT‐scan demonstrated an abscess of the right psoas muscle that had also infiltrated the spinal canal, leading to a spinal extradural abscess extending from L 2 ‐S 4 . Therapy comprised surgical drainage of the psoas abscess and conservative therapy (mainly steroids and hypercaloric diet) and resulted in complete cure of the psoas and the spinal abscess. Spinal infiltration is a rare and serious complication of Crohn's disease and must be considered in every case of significant back pain with or without obvious neurological signs.