Cervical spine tuberculosis and retropharyngeal abscess in an adult Nigerian

Globally, there has been an increase in the incidence of tuberculosis by 2.2 million from 1997 to 2005 and 95% of this is occurring in developing countries. Tuberculosis of the cervical spine is rare. To present our experience with a case of cervical spine tuberculosis. We present a case report of tuberculosis of the C3/C4 cervical spine associated with retropharyngeal abscess in a 36-year-old Nigerian woman. The disease was also associated with pulmonary tuberculosis. Neck pain, neck stiffness, radicular pain, especially to the left shoulder and wasting of the muscles of the hand, were the main features. Our patient improved on anti-tuberculous therapy and conservative supportive care. This case stresses the usefulness of simple pain cervical X-radiograph, especially in environments like ours where sophisticated investigations are either not available or beyond the reach of most patients. Conservative management in our patient resulted in remarkable improvement.