Bilateral cervical radiculopathy as a presentation of spinal tuberculosis: report of two cases
Abstract
Most patients with tuberculosis of the cervical spine present with localized neck pain and constitutional features like malaise, fever, anorexia, loss of body weight and night sweats, as early symptoms followed by long tract signs, with or without sphincter involvement, as the disease progresses. However, occasionally these patients may present with a radicular pain as an early presenting symptom, which can simulate the other pathological conditions of the cervical spine such as spondylosis, cervical disc prolapse, pyogenic cervical osteomyelitis or bone metastases. What is rare is bilateral radiculopathy and we present two such cases of cervical spinal tuberculosis whose initial presentation was bilateral cervical radiculopathy in the absence of myelopathy.