Yeungnam Univ J Med.  2013 Jun;30(1):36-38.

Two Cases of Spinal Epidural Abscess in Hemodialysis Patients

• Kim YH
• Yoo JT
• Jung SM
• Kwon SC
• Ryu SM
• Jang M
• Choi J

Abstract

While epidural abscesses are rare in hemodialysis patients, they can cause severe neurological complications that can be fatal because only nonspecific symptoms appear in the early stages of the infection. Their incidence increased recently due to intravenous drug abuse, invasive spinal surgery, percutaneous vertebral procedures, and the development of diagnostic modalities. The increased number of cases is related to the use of dialysis catheters in hemodialysis patients. If a patient has fever and back pain, doctors should eliminate the possibility of other common diseases and consider spinal epidural infection. Early diagnosis and proper treatment are important to prevent neurological complications. In this paper, the symptoms, blood work, magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI) findings, and clinical course of two hemodialysis patients who developed spinal epidural abscesses are described.

Keyword

Epidural abscess; Hemodialysis; Low back pain

MeSH Terms

Back Pain
Catheters
Dialysis
Early Diagnosis
Epidural Abscess
Fever
Humans
Incidence
Low Back Pain
Magnetics
Magnets
Renal Dialysis
Substance Abuse, Intravenous