Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 16, 2022; 10(35): 13099-13107
Published online Dec 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i35.13099
Surgery combined with antibiotics for thoracic vertebral Escherichia coli infection after acupuncture: A case report
Ya-Feng Mo, Zhuo-Song Mu, Kun Zhou, Dong Pan, Huan-Teng Zhan, Yang-Hua Tang
Ya-Feng Mo, Zhuo-Song Mu, Kun Zhou, Dong Pan, Department of Orthopaedics, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 311200, Zhejiang Province, China
Huan-Teng Zhan, Department of Orthopaedics, Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Xinyu City, Xinyu 338000, Jiangxi Province, China
Yang-Hua Tang, Department of Orthopaedics, Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Mo YF and Mu ZS collected the patient’s data; Mu ZS, Pan D, and Zhou K analyzed the data and performed the literature search; Mo YF, Tang YH, and Zhan HT drafted and revised the manuscript; Mu ZS contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first author; Tang YH provided the subject support; All authors contributed to data analysis, drafting and revision of the manuscript, and read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for the publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yang-Hua Tang, Doctor, Academic Research, Additional Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Xiaoshan District, Chengxiang Street, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China. tangyanghua168@163.com
Received: September 30, 2022
Peer-review started: September 30, 2022
First decision: October 24, 2022
Revised: November 2, 2022
Accepted: November 22, 2022
Article in press: November 22, 2022
Published online: December 16, 2022
Processing time: 74 Days and 16.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Lack of aseptic awareness of acupuncture can easily cause patients to develop infections at the treatment area. Some even lead to serious medical errors. The patient in this case developed vertebral infection after acupuncture treatment on the back. After a cycle of antibiotic treatment without significant improvement, early surgical intervention in combination with the postoperative use of sensitive antibiotics may be considered.