Salmonella Typhi Vertebral Osteomyelitis Misdiagnosed as Tuberculosis in Thoracic Spine : Case Report and Literature Review

Vertebral osteomyelitis caused by Salmonella Typhi is a rare disease, especially when it occurs in the thoracic spine. In this article, we reported a rare case of a 62-year-old male patient who had upper back pain after recurrent fever for one and a half months. He lost 8 kg of weight and the thoracic spine tenderness (T5-10) was presented according to physical examination. Combined with the CT and MRI, the patient was initially diagnosed as thoracic vertebral Tuberculosis (TB) and surgery was carried out for focus debridement by posterior approach. However, tissue and wound culture indicated that the infection was caused by Salmonella Typhi. After 3 weeks of intravenous moxifloxacin, the patient recovered and discharged without fever and back pain.