Post-COVID-19 Spondylodiscitis: A Case Study and Review of the Literature.

COVID-19 is currently a major health problem, leading to respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological complications, with additional morbidity and mortality. Spinal infections are rare, representing around 1% of all bone infections and comprising less than 2 per 10,000 of all hospitalizations in tertiary care centers. Spondylodiscitis is a complex disease, with challenging diagnosis and management. We report the case of a 45-year-old man, non-smoker hospitalized for severe COVID-19 disease with respiratory failure. Post-COVID-19, in the 8th week after discharge, he was diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging with spondylodiscitis, but etiology was not confirmed by microbiological investigations. Antibiotics were used, considering the identification of MRSA from cultures of pleural fluid and nasal swab, but surgical intervention was not provided. Clinic, biologic and imagistic were improved, but rehabilitation and long term follow up are necessary. We concluded that spondylodiscitis with spinal abscess is a rare but severe complication post-COVID-19 disease, due to dysbalanced immune response related to the respiratory viral infection, endothelial lesions, hypercoagulation and bacterial superinfection.

Ultrasound-guided drainage of walled-off pancreatic necrosis. Case report.

ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) represents a safe endoscopic procedure and serious complications (perforation, haemorrhage, and acute pancreatitis) are usually uncommon. We present the case of a 38-year-old patient with gallstones in the common biliary duct who developed acute pancreatitis after ERCP. One month later a huge fluid collection with necrotic tissue in the right paracolic gutter was found, the fluid being drained by percutaneous drainage under ultrasonographic guiding. The particularity of the case is the post-ERCP pancreatitis, complicated with walled-off necrosis, resolved without surgical intervention by using percutaneous drainage.