[Osteolysis in an aged woman with recurrent urinary infections]

Hematogenous osteomyelitis has two incidence peaks; the first in childhood, the second in elderly people. The vertebrae are frequently involved in the case of elderly people and the diagnosis is difficult to make in as much as the radiological control of osteolysis is often attributed to malignant metastasis. The Authors describe a case of vertebral osteolysis in an elderly woman with relapsing urinary infections. The clinical history of the patient is described and the diagnostic procedure is critically discussed. In this way the diagnosis of osteomyelitis of the thorax-lumbar tract is reached. The Authors go on to consider the possibility of an infectious genesis of isolated osteolytic lesions, especially in patients with risk factors and ones prone to certain conditions such as urinary infections, above all because the complications of osteomyelitis can be extremely serious.