While epidural abscesses are rare in hemodialysis patients, they can cause severe neurological complications that can be fatal because only nonspecific symptoms appear in the early stages of the infection. Their incidence increased recently due to intravenous drug abuse, invasive spinal surgery, percutaneous vertebral procedures, and the development of diagnostic modalities. The increased number of cases is related to the use of dialysis catheters in hemodialysis patients. If a patient has fever and back pain, doctors should eliminate the possibility of other common diseases and consider spinal epidural infection. Early diagnosis and proper treatment are important to prevent neurological complications. In this paper, the symptoms, blood work, magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI) findings, and clinical course of two hemodialysis patients who developed spinal epidural abscesses are described.
The sinuvertebral nerve(SVN) supplies the laterodorsal outer annulus of the intervertebral disc, the posterior longitudinal ligament(PLL), the anterior 2/3 of the dural sac and the anterior vascular plexus. Many blood vessels pass through the lateral neural canal: the anterior and posterior spinal canal branches, anterior and posterior radicular branches, and veins of the anterior and posterior internal vertebral venous plexus. The PLL is assumed to play an important role in proprio- and nociception. In the neighborhood of the SVN, other small branches emanate from the rami communicantes and join the dorsal ramus and the segmental artery that enters the neural canal. The sympathetic nerve plexus inside the anterior longitudinal ligament and the SVNs provide a network of nerve fibers around the vertebral bodies and intervertebral discs. These pathways explain the sympathetic component of the innervation of a number of spinal structures. The dorsal ramus innervates the facet joints at the corresponding level and one below, before it gives off muscular and cutaneous branches.
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