P124. Cervical degenerative disc disease and subclinical discitis: cause or contaminant?

Abstract

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Lumbar degenerative disc disease has been associated with culture positive disc space infection and P. acnes is the mostly commonly identified organism. PURPOSE This study aims to determine the prevalence of underlying infection in patients undergoing anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF). STUDY DESIGN/SETTING Prospective Study. PATIENT SAMPLE A total of 96 patients. OUTCOME MEASURES Rate of disc Infection. METHODS After IRB approval, patients scheduled to undergo elective ACDF were prospectively enrolled. Samples of the longus colli muscle and disc tissues were obtained intraoperatively. Samples were homogenized, gram stained and cultured in both aerobic and anaerobic medium for 5 and 14 days, respectively. RESULTS Of the 96 patients, 41.6% were male with an average age of 53.8±10.9 years and BMI of 29.7±5.9. Control cultures of longus colli muscle were positive in 48 (50.0%) patients. Compared to the 20.8% of male patients in negative control (NC) patients, there were significantly more (62.5%) male patients in the positive control (PC) group (p CONCLUSIONS The 54% infection rate of cervical spine discs correlates with infection rate in the lumbar spine reported by many studies. Our control cultures of longus colli muscle show a strong association with the disc culture. The strong correlation between disc cultures and longus colli cultures suggest possible contiguous spread of infection. Our findings show that infection of the disc space is a possible cause of degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine. FDA DEVICE/DRUG STATUS This abstract does not discuss or include any applicable devices or drugs.