Spondylodiscitis is a combination of discitis

Discitis

Discitis or diskitis is an infection in the intervertebral disc space that affects different age groups, but usually spontaneously affects children under 8 years of age. Nonetheless, discitis occurs post surgically in approximately 1-2 percent of patients status post spine surgery.-Signs and...

 (inflammation

Inflammation

Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...

 of one or more intervertebral disc space

Intervertebral disc space

The intervertebral disc space is typically defined on an X-ray photograph as the space between adjacent vertebrae. In healthy patients, this corresponds to the size of the intervertebral disc...

s) and spondylitis

Spondylitis

Spondylitis is an inflammation of the vertebra. It is a form of spondylopathy. In many cases, spondylitis involves one or more vertebral joint as well, which itself is called spondylarthritis.-Examples:...

 (inflammation of one or more vertebrae), the latter generally involving the areas adjacent to the intervertebral disc space.

Causes

Spondylodiscitis is the most common complication of sepsis

Sepsis

Sepsis is a potentially deadly medical condition that is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state and the presence of a known or suspected infection. The body may develop this inflammatory response by the immune system to microbes in the blood, urine, lungs, skin, or other tissues...

 or local infection, usually in the form of an abscess. The main causative organisms are staphylococci and Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a pathogenic bacterial species in the genus Mycobacterium and the causative agent of most cases of tuberculosis . First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, M...

, but potential organisms include a large number of bacteria, fungi, zoonoses. Spondylodiscitis frequently develops in immunocompromised individuals, such as by a cancer, infection, or by immunosuppressive drug

Immunosuppressive drug

Immunosuppressive drugs or immunosuppressive agents are drugs that inhibit or prevent activity of the immune system. They are used in immunosuppressive therapy to:...

s used for organ transplantations.

Diagnosis

The main methods to diagnose a spondylodiscitis are magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...

 (MRI), biopsy and microbiological tests such as PCR

Polymerase chain reaction

The polymerase chain reaction is a scientific technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence....

to determine an infectious cause.