2002 Volume 39 Issue 5 Pages 545-548
A 68-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease (PD) was admitted due to aspiration pneumonia. The symptoms improved partly by administration of antimicrobial agents and a steroid-pulse treatment, but she suffered repeated MRSA pneumonia, which caused a long-term bed confinement. Shoulder pain that appeared after she started rehabilitation did not improve on administration of NSAIDs. We suspected pyogenic spondylitis in the cervical vertebraes based on the cervical X-rays and the cervical MRI. Patients of PD often have a shoulder pain due to various causes. When a patient with PD has a severe shoulder pain, we should suspect pyogenic spondylitis in the cervical vertebraes as one of the differential diagnoses. It is necessary to do immediately thorough imaging examinations.
