Haemophilus paraphrophilus vertebral osteomyelitis.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To report the first case of Haemophilus paraphrophilus vertebral osteomyelitis--the second reported case of osteomyelitis of any site caused by this organism. CLINICAL FEATURES: A 41-year-old male bus driver with no significant previous medical history presented with severe abdominal and back pain, which was eventually localised to the eleventh thoracic vertebra (T11). H. paraphrophilus was isolated from pus aspirated from the vertebral body. INTERVENTIONS AND OUTCOME: The patient was treated with penicillin given intravenously for four weeks, then with antibiotics given orally for a further three weeks, with good clinical response. CONCLUSION: H. paraphrophilus is an infrequent pathogen which may be difficult to identify and test for antibiotic susceptibility, but can cause serious infection, including primary haematogenous osteomyelitis.