Haematogenous vertebral osteomyelitis in the elderly

The aim of our study was to analyse the characteristics of haematogenous ve rtebral osteomyelitis (HVO) in the elderly. A retrospective comparative ana lysis of the medical records of 72 patients (38 younger than 63 years, grou p 1, and 34 aged 63 years and over, group 2) with haematogenous vertebral o steomyelitis of confirmed aetiology was carried out. Intravenous drug addic tion and infection with the human immunodeficiency virus were seen in 4/38 (10%) and 5/ 38 (13%) patients from group 1 and 0/34 patients (0%) from gro up 2 (P = 0.05 and 0.035, respectively). Seven of 34 elderly (20%) and 038 (0%) young individuals had recently had surgery (P = 0.0036). Escherichia c oli was isolated in 7/34 elderly (20%) and 0/38 (0%) young patients (P = 0. 0036). The remaining studied data did not reach statistical significance. R ecent surgery is a risk factor for developing HVO in the elderly, the urina ry tract being the source of the pathogen in a large number of elderly pati ents with spinal infection.