Tuberculous Spondylitis Aggravated by Spinal Manipulative Therapy: A case report

ABSTRACT

A 43 years old woman had suffered from a lower back pain for 2 months. She experienced pain aggravation after spinal manipulative therapy that was practiced by non-licentiate. Physical examination showed tenderness on L1 and L2 spinous processes. Radionuclide bone scan with 99mTc-MDP showed increased radioactivity of L1, L2 vertebral bodies. The MRI finding showed low signal intensity of L1 and L2 vertebral bodies in T1-weighted image and high signal intensity in T2-weighted image. Needle biopsy finding showed fibrosis and inflammatory cell invasion of bone marrow. We concluded that she had tuberculous spondylitis and non-detection or negligent treatment of a preexisting disease contributed to aggravation of her symptoms. We report one case of tuberculous spondylitis aggravated by spinal manipulative therapy with review of literatures.