Pott's disease

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Pott's disease
Tuberculosis of the spine in an Egyptian mummy
Specialty	Rheumatology
Symptoms	Pott's spine, tuberculous spondylitis, spinal tuberculosis
Diagnostic method	Radiograph, Bone scan, MRI
Named after	Percivall Pott

Pott's disease, or Pott disease, named for British surgeon Percivall Pott who first described the symptoms in 1799,^[1] is tuberculosis of the spine,^[2][3] usually due to haematogenous spread from other sites, often the lungs. The lower thoracic and upper lumbar vertebrae areas of the spine are most often affected.

It causes a kind of tuberculous arthritis of the intervertebral joints. The infection can spread from two adjacent vertebrae into the adjoining intervertebral disc space. If only one vertebra is affected, the disc is normal, but if two are involved, the disc, which is avascular, cannot receive nutrients, and collapses. In a process called caseous necrosis, the disc tissue dies, leading to vertebral narrowing and eventually to vertebral collapse and spinal damage. A dry soft-tissue mass often forms and superinfection is rare.

Spread of infection from the lumbar vertebrae to the psoas muscle, causing abscesses, is not uncommon.^[4]