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.

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.

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.

The main methods to diagnose a spondylodiscitis are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), biopsy and microbiological tests such as PCR to determine an infectious cause.

An abscess in the psoas muscle of the abdomen may be caused by lumbar tuberculosis. Owing to the proximal attachments of the iliopsoas, such an abscess may drain inferiorly into the upper medial thigh and present as a swelling in the region. The sheath of the muscle arises from the lumbar vertebrae and the intervertebral discs between the vertebrae. The disc is more susceptible to infection, from tuberculosis and "Salmonella discitis". The infection can spread into the psoas muscle sheath.

Treatment may involve drainage and antibiotics.