INTRODUCTION:
Spondylodiscitis is a wide range of vertebral osteomyelitis, spondylitis, and discitis. The etiological agents can be divided into conventional bacterial pathogens and atypical pathogens. The aim was to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of spondylodiscitis in southern Morocco. 
MATERIALS:
We conducted a retrospective study in the university center of Marrakech over 10 years. Data was collected from medical records of patients. The IBM SPSS statistics was used for statistical documentation.
RESULTS:
Thirty two patients were included. The mean age was 47 years. Four patients had a history of tuberculous contagion (12.5%) and 2 had a history of contact with cattle or raw milk consumption (6.3%). The median diagnosis delay was 203,8 days [8-1460 days]. The most common symptom was low back pain in 84.4% and back pain in 21.9%. Radicular pain was noted in 12 patients (18.8% cruralgia and 15.6% sciatica). The neurological deficiency was noted in 15.6%. Spinal stiffness was found in 29 patients (90.6%). Biological exploration showed leukocytosis in 31.3% of patients. The mean value of C reactive protein and erythrocytes sedimentation rate were respectively 40.7 mg / l, and 73.2 mm / 1 hour. Disco-vertebral biopsy was performed for eleven patients (34.4%). The diagnosis of tuberculous spondylodiscitis was retained in nineteen patients, one patient had Brucella spondylodiscitis and six patients had spondylodiscitis with pyogenic germs. Surgical management was done to 6 patients (18.8%). The outcome was favorable in 17 patients (53.1%), 7 patients were lost in the follow-up (19.9%) and 2 patients had complications including one death.
CONCLUSION:
This descriptive study suggests that a combination of clinical data and laboratory findings can be useful to discriminate between patients with specific and no specific germ in spondylodiscitis. In our context, tuberculosis remains the most common etiology of infectious spondylodiscitis.



Epidemiological, clinical and etiological profile of infectious spondylodiscitis in southern Morocco