Vnitr Lek 2019, 65(11):712-714 | DOI: 10.36290/vnl.2019.123

Spinal epidural abscess - a rare complication of Crohn's disease: case report

Karolina Poredská¹, Vladimír Zbořil¹, Lucie Prokopová¹, Lenka Kučerová¹, Milan Dastych¹, Svatopluk Richter², Petra Praksová³, Jiří Dolina¹, Lumír Kunovský^1,4,*

¹ Department of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, and University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic

² Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, and University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic

³ Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, and University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic

⁴ Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, and University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic

Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is a rare disease that occurs mainly in immunocompromised patients after spinal surgery or spinal trauma and can lead to a severe neurological deficit or even death if diagnosed too late. However, cases of SEA have also been reported in patients with fistulising Crohn's disease (CD). We present a case of a young patient with CD and a history of relapsing perianal disease followed by a complication of SEA in the thoracic spine. In close cooperation with the orthopedists and the neurologists, the gastroenterologists have successfully treated the SEA in this patient, allowing her to return back to biological treatment for CD.

Keywords: biological treatment; Crohn's disease; perianal fistulas; spinal epidural abscess

Received: September 3, 2018; Accepted: December 3, 2018; Published: November 1, 2019  Show citation