Native vertebral osteomyelitis in aged patients: distinctive features. An observational cohort study

To describe the demographic, clinical, and microbiological profile of native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) in aged patients as compared to that of younger patients, to identify differences that could motivate changes in clinical management.

Retrospective, observational cohort study (1990–2015) including all adult patients with microbiologically confirmed NVO divided into 2 groups: aged (≥ 65 years) vs younger (18–64 years).

247 patients included, 138 aged and 109 younger. Relative to younger patients, the aged had higher rates of healthcare-related infection (40.6 vs 25.7%, p = 0.014), previous known heart valve disease (29.7 vs 9.2%, p < 0.001), and concomitant infective endocarditis (38.4 vs 20.2%, p = 0.002). The groups showed similar rates of symptomatic spinal cord compression (14.5 vs 11.9%, p = 0.556) and paraspinal abscesses (62.3 vs 68.8%, p = 0.288) at presentation. There was a trend to lower spine surgery rates in the aged (11.6 vs 17.4%, p = 0.192). On univariate analysis, Staphylococcus aureus infection was associated with higher in-hospital mortality in aged (29%, OR 4.3, 95% CI 1.61–11.45). In-hospital mortality was higher among the aged (14.5 vs 6.4%, p = 0.044) as well as relapse rate due to treatment failure (3.4 vs 1%, p = 0.377).