Spondylitis is an inflammation of the vertebra. It is a form of spondylopathy. In many cases spondylitis involves one or more vertebral joints as well, which itself is called spondylarthritis.

Treatment usually includes antibiotics, and reducing the mobility of the affected region, either with a back brace or a plaster cast. Without treatment, the patient may form an abscess which may need to be surgically corrected. Due to the poor vascularity of the disc, drugs required for treatment often include potent agents such as Ciprofloxacin along with Vancomycin. Occasionally, oral drugs can be used to treat the infection but it may fail and IV drugs may be required.

If the patient is an adult many surgeons and doctors now recommend moving little and often and within the pain limits of the medication. Discs respond to osmotic pressure therefore movement is beneficial to increase their blood flow and fluid dynamics. This is why disc patients are no longer told to bed rest. In children whether to bed rest or move a little is decided on an individual basis, depending on the site and severity of the discitis.

Spondylodiscitis is a combination of discitis (inflammation of one or more intervertebral disc spaces) and spondylitis (inflammation of one or more vertebrae), the latter generally involving the areas adjacent to the intervertebral disc space.

Spondylodiscitis is the most common complication of sepsis or local infection, usually in the form of an abscess. The main causative organisms are staphylococci and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but potential organisms include a large number of bacteria, fungi, zoonoses. Spondylodiscitis frequently develops in immunocompromised individuals, such as by a cancer, infection, or by immunosuppressive drugs used for organ transplantations.

Pott's disease is a tuberculous disease of the vertebrae marked by stiffness of the vertebral column, pain on motion, tenderness on pressure, prominence of certain vertebral spines, and occasionally abdominal pain, abscess formation, and paralysis.

Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory disease involving the spine and sacroiliac joints, and is therefore also a form of spondylarthritis.

A combination of spondylitis and inflammation of the intervertebral disc space is termed a spondylodiscitis.

Spondylitis is one of the most common causes of back and neck pain, and results from inflammation of the vertebral joints. The condition is often not detected until it has fully developed and is causing pain. The pain is usually concentrated around the cervical region of the neck, shoulder and lower spine, with downward-moving stinging pain. Types of spondylitis include: cervical spondylitis – which affects the cervical spine, causing pain to spread the back of the neck; lumbar spondylitis – which causes pain in the lumbar region; and ankylosing spondylitis- which is primarily a disease that affects the sacroiliac joints, causing stiffness in the neck, jaw, shoulders, hips and knees.

Discitis or diskitis is an infection in the intervertebral disc space that affects different age groups. In adults it can lead to severe consequences such as sepsis or epidural abscess but can also spontaneously resolve, especially in children under 8 years of age. Discitis occurs post surgically in approximately 1-2 percent of patients after spinal surgery.

The main goal of treatment is to remove the cause of the phlegmonous process in order to achieve effective treatment and prevention of recidives.

If the patient's condition is mild and signs of inflammatory process are present without signs of infiltrates, then conservative treatment with antibiotics is sufficient.

If the patient's condition is severe, however, immediate operation is usually necessary with application of drainage system. All of these are done under general anaesthesia. During operation, the cavity or place of phlegmonous process are washed with antiseptic, antibiotic solutions and proteolyic ferments.

In post-operative period, patients are treated with intravenous antibiotics, haemosorbtion, vitaminotherapy. Additionally, the use of i/v or i/m antistaphylococci γ-globulin or anatoxin can be taken as immunotherapy.

During operation of phlegmon dissection at any location, it is important:

1. to avoid spreading of pus during operation;

2. to take into account the cosmetic value of the operating site, especially when treating phlegmmonous process of the face; and

3. to avoid damaging nerves.

Commonly by bacteria – streptococci, spore and non-spore forming anaerobes, etc.

Factors affecting the development of phlegmons are virulence of bacteria and immunity strength.

The mortality of the disease in 1909, as recorded in the British Army and Navy stationed in Malta, was 2%. The most frequent cause of death was endocarditis. Recent advances in antibiotics and surgery have been successful in preventing death due to endocarditis. Prevention of human brucellosis can be achieved by eradication of the disease in animals by vaccination and other veterinary control methods such as testing herds/flocks and slaughtering animals when infection is present. Currently, no effective vaccine is available for humans. Boiling milk before consumption, or before using it to produce other dairy products, is protective against transmission via ingestion. Changing traditional food habits of eating raw meat, liver, or bone marrow is necessary, but difficult to implement. Patients who have had brucellosis should probably be excluded indefinitely from donating blood or organs. Exposure of diagnostic laboratory personnel to "Brucella" organisms remains a problem in both endemic settings and when brucellosis is unknowingly imported by a patient. After appropriate risk assessment, staff with significant exposure should be offered postexposure prophylaxis and followed up serologically for six months. Recently published experience confirms that prolonged and frequent serological follow-up consumes significant resources without yielding much information, and is burdensome for the affected staff, who often fail to comply. The side effects of the usual recommended regimen of rifampicin and doxycycline for three weeks also reduce treatment adherence. As no evidence shows treatment with two drugs is superior to monotherapy, British guidelines now recommend doxycycline alone for three weeks and a less onerous follow-up protocol.

Antibiotics such as tetracyclines, rifampin, and the aminoglycosides streptomycin and gentamicin are effective against "Brucella" bacteria. However, the use of more than one antibiotic is needed for several weeks, because the bacteria incubate within cells.

Surveillance using serological tests, as well as tests on milk like the milk ring test, can be used for screening and play an important role in campaigns to eliminate the disease. Also, individual animal testing both for trade and for disease-control purposes is practiced. In endemic areas, vaccination is often used to reduce the incidence of infection. An animal vaccine is available that uses modified live bacteria. The World Organisation for Animal Health "Manual of Diagnostic Test and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals" provides detailed guidance on the production of vaccines. As the disease is closer to being eliminated, a test and stamping out program is required to completely eliminate it.

The gold standard treatment for adults is daily intramuscular injections of streptomycin 1 g for 14 days and oral doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for 45 days (concurrently). Gentamicin 5 mg/kg by intramuscular injection once daily for seven days is an acceptable substitute when streptomycin is not available or contraindicated. Another widely used regimen is doxycycline plus rifampin twice daily for at least six weeks. This regimen has the advantage of oral administration. A triple therapy of doxycycline, with rifampin and co-trimoxazole, has been used successfully to treat neurobrucellosis.

Doxycycline is able to cross the blood–brain barrier, but requires the addition of two other drugs to prevent relapse. Ciprofloxacin and co-trimoxazole therapy is associated with an unacceptably high rate of relapse. In brucellic endocarditis, surgery is required for an optimal outcome. Even with optimal antibrucellic therapy, relapses still occur in 5 to 10% of patients with Malta fever.

The main way of preventing brucellosis is by using fastidious hygiene in producing raw milk products, or by pasteurizing all milk that is to be ingested by human beings, either in its unaltered form or as a derivate, such as cheese.