[Spondylodiscitis in childhood]

Spondylitis is a rare disease in childhood and atypical symptoms frequently retard the diagnosis. From 1968 to 1988, 25 children with a diagnosis of spondylitis were treated in our orthopedic hospital. Anamneses, clinical symptoms, roentgenograms, and differential diagnoses are described for these cases. Spondylodiskitis represents a mild course of the disease in childhood. Tuberculous spondylitis was not present in any of the cases. The prognosis of childhood spondylitis is favorable, and surgical interventions were not necessary in our patients. Spondylitis healed with an ankylosis of one segment of the spine without essential disturbance of spinal function.