Diário da Espinha

Vertebral Destruction Syndrome: From Knowledge to Practice

Abstract

Jose Maria Jimenez-Avila, Mario Alberto Cahueque-Lemus, Andres Enrique Cobar-Bustamante and Maria Cristina Bregni-Duraés

The term Vertebral Destruction Syndrome comprises pathologies causing structural changes in the spine in the vertebral body mainly producing mechanical deformity and neurological involvement. Among the pathologies found in this definition are infectious and metabolic tumors. The vertebral osteomyelitis is a disease that occurs mainly in adults >50 years; we speak of spondylodiscitis when condition affects the disc and vertebral body. The most important in the vertebral body is Staphylococcus aureus osteomyelitis, seen in over 50% of cases. Tumors of the spine can start from local or adjacent spinal injuries or distant spread through the blood or lymphatic. Metastases injuries account for about 97% of all tumors of the spine. Primary tumors that most commonly spread to spine is lung, prostate, breast and kidney. Metabolic bone diseases are a group of disorders that occur as a result of changes in calcium metabolism, spine contains large amounts of metabolically active cancellous bone, which must withstand axial loads during stance, and osteoporosis is a metabolic disease that most commonly affects the spine, characterized by low bone mass.

The diagnosis of these entities is important for treatment and prognosis of the patient, the term Vertebral Destruction Syndrome proposes a notarized scheme aimed at improving patient prognosis and their prompt treatment.