Spinal epidural abscess. An infectious emergency. Case report and review.

Spinal epidural abscess is an unusual disease in the pediatric age group, requires early diagnosis and prompt surgical drainage to insure a good clinical outcome. Back pain and fever are usually the only presenting symptoms occurring before precipitous neurologic deterioration. The causative organism is most often Staphylococcus aureus, which presumably is spread to the epidural space hematogenously. Diagnosis is facilitated by computed tomography (CT) scan, but the entire spine must be imaged by either myelography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess for skip lesions.