What would cause an abscess that runs the length of the spine?

External?

I would guess they hadn’t moved (or hadn’t been moved) enough and the skin/tissue broke down over time. Any break in the skin and any moisture can get things started and then if the area is always underneath them there just isn’t an opportunity for it to heal correctly and just gets worse.

Unfortunately it’s fairly common with patients who can’t move themselves and especially older people, although that large of an area would be an extreme case I think.

Does that fit with the person’s history? I’m sorry to hear your loved on is in the hospital and hope they recover quickly. As far as the abscess, most usually heal with time, air, antibiotics, and regular movement/rolling. It would generally be a sign that they’ll need more help in the future to keep the same sort of things from happening again.

No, internal. This is a young, seemingly healthy girl.
I’ve worked in hospice for 5 years, I’m pretty familiar with bedsores and different types of skin breakdowns. This is nothing like that.

I definitely see how that could be jarring diagnosis. I’m sorry but I’m not familiar with that personally.

A couple quick searches, you may have seen these but in summary it sounds like a bacterial infection in the spinal column causes an abscess in, around, or next to the spine. The full length of the spine would seem to be a large infection and there are probably other symptoms that needed to be treated.

A couple of links

Epidural Abscess
Spinal Cord Abscess

Not a lot of answers as to how it happens initially, but good accessible information if you haven’t seen it already.

I hope your friend does well.

And a huge thanks for working with hospice patients, it’s so hard but so needed. It takes a special type of person.

Thank you for the links & for the compliment, as well.

“Alongside the spine” suggests “paravertebral infection – abscess”. Google searching these terms brings up a bunch of links on Brucellosis (infection with Brucella, a kind of gram-negative bacteria). There’s also infection with Mycobacterium that causes tuberculosis. Pott’s disease is TB of the spine. These are both pretty uncommon, I think.

@gasman it seems to have the doctors at two local hospitals pretty stumped at the moment, along with her other symptoms. I’m sure they will ultimately find the cause (at this point they don’t even know if it is viral or bacterial), I just thought it was so bizarre, I wondered what might cause this to happen.
So strange. I feel terrible for her. Thanks for your input.

Here’s an article on thoraco-lumbar spine infection from U Southern Calif. Center for Spinal Surgery. It says this usually happens by spread through the bloodstream of urinary tract or wound infections. My elderly uncle had such a condition but recovered. Best wishes for your loved one.