[Cervical pains in Pott's disease: Epidemiological, clinical and radiological aspects concerning 26 cases in Abidjan]

In this study, we report the results of the experience of the Rheumatology Department of Cocody University Hospital in the management of the cervical spinal tuberculosis in Abidjan area. This was a retrospective study of 26 cases collected over a 7 year period (January 2006 to December 2013). The objective of this work was to illustrate the epidemiological, clinical and radiological profile of the cervical localization of tuberculosis in our practice. The prevalence of cervical disease was 4.87%. The average age of our patients was 48.27 years, with a slight male predominance (60.7%). The duration of disease progression was long (8 months on average); symptomatology was dominated by pain associated with stiffness in all patients (100%). One third of patients had already consulted at the stage of neurological complications (1 case of Brown Sequard syndrome, 2 cases of tetraparesis, 5 cases of paraplegia). Computer tomography was performed in all patients, followed by an MRI scan for 6 patients, which revealed the predominance of damage to the C3-C4 floor (34.62%) and 3 cases of sub occipital localization. Spondylodiscitis was the main radiological anatomical lesion (88.46%), lesions were multi-stage in 61.54% of cases, the prevalence of retropharyngeal abscess was high (84.61% of cases), that of the epiduritis was 76.92% and radiological spinal cord compression was recorded in a third of cases. All patients benefited from an antituberculous treatment associated with cervical immobilization.