Secondary Late Epidural Abscess After Deep Cervical Infection

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Abscess formation along the spinal epidural space is a rare condition. Predisposing factors include spinal surgery, recent trauma, immunosuprression, a distal site of infection and intravenous drug use. The classical clinical triad, known as fever, spinal pain and neurological deficit, is observed in only a small portion of the cases. These classical symptoms are non-specific and regrettably in crowded EDs. It is hard to diagnose spinal epidural abscess early because of the nonspecific nature of its symptoms. The lack of related sensitive and specific laboratory tests adds further to the difficulty of early diagnosis. We describe a patient with no significant predisposing factors other than previous history of deep neck infection that occured two months ago who presented with particularly back pain.