INVESTIGATION OF BACTERIAL AND VIRAL SLOW INTERVERTEBRAL DISC INFECTIONS

Objective. Currently, few publications have been available regarding an effect of level, type of intrusion, and viral infections on spinal disc degeneration. The study was aimed to evaluate an incidence of indolent bacterial and viral intervertebral disc infections in unstratified group of patients operated on for spinal degenerative pathologies. Material and methods. For the study, intraoperative disc samples were collected from patients who underwent discectomy and total spinal fusion surgery for degenerative pathologies between the years December, 2018 to January, 2020. 447 samples were examined obtained from 392 patients (189 women and 203 men) with a mean age of 58.1 years. The following epidemiological and clinical data were collected: gender, age, spinal segments affected, type of surgical approach, preoperative C-reactive protein (CRP; reference range 0.00.5 mg/dL), and preoperative as well as 6-month postoperative ODI and NDI, both expressed as a percentage. The incidence of postoperative infections within six months after surgery as well as MI for each operated segment was assessed. Only patients with ventral cervical or dorsal thoracic access were enrolled in the study. In the lumbar region, the ventral assess was chosen for anterior lumbar interbody fusion, the lateral approach for oblique or extreme lateral interbody fusion, and the dorsal approach in case of standard microdiscectomy of posterior transforaminal interbody fusion or transforaminal interbody fusion. A logistic regression analysis was performed to model a risk of positive microbiological culture and a risk of emerging modal changes by using a set of independent variables selected in a stepwise manner by using the Akaike information criterion as a measure of quality of select procedure. Results. MRI for modal analysis was available for all 447 segments. MRI revealed 45 type 1 SCs (10.07% of all segments), 118 type 2 SCs (26.4%), and 5 type 3 SCs (1.12%). Microbiological culture was available in 410 segments. In these 410 segments, 39 type 1 MCs, 113 type 2 MCs, and 5 type 3 MCs were found. A statistically significant relationship was found between SC type 2 and a positive microbiological result (p = 0.0127). In contrast, there were no statistically significant associations for type 1 and type 3 SCs (p=0.3052 and p=0.0767, respectively). Conclusion. A relation between disc degeneration and infections seems unlikely. Histopathological evidence of inflammation in degenerated discs is rare and unrelated to microbiological findings.