• Antonio Herrera, Angel Antonio Martínez, and Javier Rodríguez.
• Service of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Miguel Servet University Hospital, Zaragoza, Spain. aherrera@salud.aragon.es
• Spine. 2005 Nov 1; 30 (21): 2439-44.

Study DesignRetrospective study.ObjectivesTo revise the treatment of spinal hydatidosis.Summary Of Background DataAbout 50% of cases of bone hydatidosis are spinal.MethodsTwenty patients with spinal hydatidosis were treated. There were 13 men and 7 women, with a mean age of 53.1 years. The median follow-up was 4.8 years. The infected area was the cervical spine in 1 patient, the dorsal spine in 7, the lumbar spine in 7, and the sacrum in 5. Curettage and resection of the infected bone were performed. The spine was exposed posteriorly in all but 2 patients. An additional posterior decompression and fusion with instrumentation were performed after removing the involved posterior elements in 8 patients. An anterior approach was used in 2 patients: a total corpectomy was performed and a bone graft was added. Two weeks later, a posterior decompression and fixation with instrumentation was done. No preoperative drugs were used. Medical antihelmintic treatment was used after surgery in all but 8 patients.ResultsThirteen patients had spinal cord injury at the moment of surgery. The neurologic damage recovered only in 1 case. Repeated curettage was necessary in 13 cases: in 12 of them because of recurrence and in 1 because of surgical wound infection. In 6 cases of recurrence, there was also chronic wound infection. At last follow-up, 17 patients were free of disease.ConclusionsThe treatment of choice of spinal hydatidosis is surgical removal of the affected vertebrae combined with posterior stabilization, followed by postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. Recurrence is very frequent.

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