[Pott's disease, surgical case series and literature review]

Osteoarticular tuberculosis represents 9-20% of extrapulmonary forms and spinal tuberculosis is its most common form.

We present three cases of tuberculous spondylitis in patients aged 22, 36 and 68 years, with 8, 6 and 6 months of evolution and with involvement of L5-S1, T7-T8 and T5-T6, respectively. The two younger patients had disc involvement, and in the first case a pyogenic abscess was initially suspected. Local pain was the initial symptom and the 2 older patients developed inability to walk and urinary and fecal incontinence. The patients received a complete anti-tuberculosis regimen and the postoperative evolution was satisfactory. All showed expression of tumor necrosis factor in the epithelioid and giant cells of the granulomas and activation of nuclear factor κβ in the accompanying lymphocytes.

The persistence of localized spinal pain, with or without local volume increase, should alert the physician to the possibility of a spinal infectious process, including tuberculosis.