This instructive case history demonstrates the importance of considering spinal abscess in any patient with fever and back or neck pain. Delayed diagnosis has been reported in as many as 75% of cases presenting to an emergency department over a 10-year period and trebles the risk of long-term neurological deficit. The 'classic triad' for diagnosis - fever, back pain and neurological deficit -assumes that the condition is rarely diagnosed before neurological damage has occurred.
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