Presentation
Staph. aureus sepsis and bacteremia. Pain on swallowing.
Patient Data
Retropharyngeal/prevertebral gas-fluid collection measuring 1.6 x 1.5 cm along a length of 7 cm from C5 to T2. It lies to the left of the esophagus, mildly compressing it and displacing it to the right. The known C5-6 discitis is better seen on MRI (not included here - suboptimal image quality).
Borderline prominent right paratracheal lymph nodes.
Acknowledgement: Dr Elaine Lui.
Case Discussion
The cause in this case was associated with C5/6 discitis/epidural abscess and the patient went on to have an drainage and ACDF performed by the neurosurgeons.