The lower thoracic and upper lumbar vertebrae are frequently affected by spinal tuberculosis.
Typically, the infection's cause is external to the spine.
Most frequently, it spreads through the blood from the lungs.
Osteoporosis and infectious arthritis are both present.
Usually, many vertebrae are affected.
The anterior portion of the vertebral body next to the bone plate is the most severely afflicted region.
That region may transmit tuberculosis to surrounding lumbar discs.
Because the disc in children has blood vessels, disc illness in adults is secondary to the transmission of infection from the vertebral body.
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When the thoracic vertebrae are damaged, with a pattern of bone degradation with relative disc preservation, and with paravertebral and epidural soft tissue masses, tuberculous spinal infections should be considered in patients with an insidious, progressive history of back pain and in people from endemic areas.