Spinal Infections

Occasionally, a bacterial or fungal infection may afflict the area around your spine. This is often the result of contamination during surgery; despite modern preventative measures, about 4% of surgeries in your back area bring about a spinal infection. The risk of getting an infection after a surgery goes up if there are multiple operations taking place in the area, and if the surgery takes a long time to complete. Infections that come about from a surgery will generally manifest themselves between three days and three months after the operation.

Alternatively, an infection can happen spontaneously in patients with certain risk factors. Such risk factors include diabetes, HIV, poor nutrition, cancer, and obesity.

Symptoms of spinal infections can vary greatly. They can be subtle to severe, and often include fever, chills, a stiff neck, back pain, redness, tenderness, headaches, or a weakness, numbness, or tingling in the arms or legs.

Treatments for a spinal infection can come in different forms, depending on the particular complications. You can learn more about maintaining good spinal health at our Edmonds chiropractic clinic.