Lumbar Spine Infection with Presented as Abdominal Pain: A Case Report and Literature Review.

BACKGROUND

is a part of the inherent flora on the surface of human mucosa. It usually does not cause disease unless the patient has been bitten, injured or surgically infected. Lumbar spine infection caused by usually presents with conventional symptoms such as low back pain and fever. Herein, we report a case of lumbar intervertebral space infection with presented as abdominal pain.

CASE PRESENTATION

A 38-year-old man with no medical history of note presented with abdominal pain. Initially, local doctors suspected that the patient had abdominal disease. However, abdominal diseases were ruled out and only lumbar spine infection was confirmed. Then, the patient was misdiagnosed as lumbar tuberculosis. Finally, anaerobic culture and metagenomic next-generation sequencing confirmed the , which was rarely involved in lumbar intervertebral space infection. The patient recovered after operation and antibiotic therapy.

CONCLUSION

This case indicated a rare symptom of lumbar spine infection, abdominal cramping, which is caused by . Blood culture had low sensitivity as a diagnostic method for , but lesion sample culture or metagenomic next-generation sequencing had high sensitivity for early diagnosis.