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Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases Affecting the Young Athlete’s Spine

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Spinal Injuries and Conditions in Young Athletes

Part of the book series: Contemporary Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine ((PASM))

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Abstract

The young athlete requires a healthy spine for optimal performance. Orthopedists, especially those caring for young athletes, must be familiar with spinal pathologies as the spine is vulnerable to a variety of insults from infection and inflammation. Spine infections result from bacterial, fungal, mycobacterial, and parasitic infections. The most commonly observed infections include pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis, and discitis, less commonly, spinal Brucellosis, and Pott’s disease. In addition to trauma, infection, and normal degeneration, inflammatory disease is a well-established cause of spinal dysfunction. Inflammatory diseases affecting the pediatric spine in particular include enthesitis-related arthropathy, psoriatic arthritis, and undifferentiated arthritis. Some inflammatory diseases affect the adult spine more often but may have early presentation in the pediatric population and include rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and the other seronegative spondyloarthropathies.

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Abbreviations

ESR:

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

CBC:

Complete blood count with differential

PVO:

Pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis

PADI:

Posterior atlanto-dens interval

AADI:

Anterior atlanto-dens interval

JIA:

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis

JRA:

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

RA:

Rheumatoid arthritis

SpA:

Spondyloarthritis

IBD:

Inflammatory bowel disease

ESSG:

European Spondyloarthropathy Study Group

JSpA:

Juvenile spondyloarthritis

CRP:

C-reactive protein level

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

CT:

Computed tomography

WBC:

White blood count

MDR TB:

Multidrug resistant tuberculosis

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

AFB:

Acid-fast bacillus

PPD:

Purified protein derivative

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Lionel N. Metz MD, Derek Thomas Ward MD & Aenor J. Sawyer MD, MS

Authors
  1. Lionel N. Metz MD
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  2. Derek Thomas Ward MD
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  3. Aenor J. Sawyer MD, MS
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aenor J. Sawyer MD, MS .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Sports Medicine, Childrens Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Lyle Micheli

  2. Division of Sports Medicine, Childrens Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Cynthia Stein

  3. Division of Sports Medicine, Childrens Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael O'Brien

  4. Division of Sports Medicine, Childrens Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Pierre d’Hemecourt

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Metz, L., Ward, D., Sawyer, A. (2014). Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases Affecting the Young Athlete’s Spine. In: Micheli, L., Stein, C., O'Brien, M., d’Hemecourt, P. (eds) Spinal Injuries and Conditions in Young Athletes. Contemporary Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4753-5_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4753-5_18

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