CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1618670
This article is part of the Research TopicDiagnosis and Treatment Strategies of Tick-borne DiseasesView all 11 articles
Coxiella burnetii infection in the lumbar vertebra: a rare case report and review of literature
Provisionally accepted
Xingguo Tan1,2*
Feng Li1,3Tao Zhang1Mingjia Song1Lian Zhang1Yuan Xing1Yizhe Wang1,2Long Chen1,2Dashuai Huang1Yanpeng Lu1,2Songkai Li1*- 1People's Liberation Army Joint Logistics Support Force 940th Hospital, Lanzhou, China
- 2The First Clinical Medical College, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
- 3The 943rd Hospital of Joint Logistic Support Force of PLA, Wuwei, China
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Coxiella burnetii is a bacterial pathogen of Q fever. Coxiella burnetii infection in the lumbar vertebra is a rare form of chronic Q fever, which poses significant obstacles in both diagnostic processes and therapeutic interventions. A 57-year-old male patient with a previous diagnosis of lumbar infection with unknown pathogen at another institution was admitted for treatment. At our institution, the patient underwent surgical interventions, including decompression through total laminectomy, lesion excision, intervertebral bone graft fusion, and fixation. Intraoperative pathological samples were analyzed using a specific multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) pathogenic microorganism detection, confirming the presence of Coxiella burnetii.Postoperatively, the patient received long-term antibiotic therapy by oral doxycycline and ciprofloxacin for a duration plan of 18 months. At the 6-month post-operative evaluation, the patient exhibited complete resolution of clinical symptoms, and imaging results revealed no evidence of infection recurrence, suggesting a clinical cure. The combination of decompression through total laminectomy, lesion excision, intervertebral bone graft fusion, and fixation alongside oral doxycycline and ciprofloxacin treatment has been demonstrated to be an effective therapeutic strategy for managing Coxiella burnetii infection in the lumbar vertebra.
Keywords: Coxiella burnetii, Q Fever, Infection, Lumbar, case report, review
Received: 26 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tan, Li, Zhang, Song, Zhang, Xing, Wang, Chen, Huang, Lu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xingguo Tan, People's Liberation Army Joint Logistics Support Force 940th Hospital, Lanzhou, China
Songkai Li, People's Liberation Army Joint Logistics Support Force 940th Hospital, Lanzhou, China
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