Osteomyelitis may be missed in elderly patients with backache when they already have degenerative spinal disease. We report four cases of non-tuberculous vertebral osteomyelitis seen in an acute geriatric unit over 10 years. All four cases were due to infection with Gram negative organisms. An awareness that oestomyelitis has a predominantly non-staphylococcal cause in elderly patients may help in reaching a correct diagnosis.
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Thompson et al. (1988) studied this question.
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