[Value of disk puncture in the diagnosis of infectious spondylodiskitis. Apropos of 48 punctures].

The authors report on their experience with discal puncture in the bacteriological diagnosis of 48 infectious spondylodiscites. This technique makes it possible to obtain a bacteriological certitude in 31 cases (65 per cent): Pott's disease (40 per cent) and 12 pyogene spondylodiscites (25 per cent), with 17 punctures remaining negative, including 5 technical failures, the needle not penetrating into the pinched disc. No incident was noted, demonstrating the harmless nature of this method. The authors insist upon the necessity of washing the disc in order to decrease the percentage of failures.