title: Clostridium difficile vertebral osteomyelitis.
abstract: Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and it occasionally causes extraintestinal infections. We present a case of C. difficile-associated diarrhea that led to vertebral osteomyelitis associated with hardware. The osteomyelitis became symptomatic 2 years after the initial diarrheal event. C. difficile recovered from internal hardware sites cannot simply be regarded as a contaminant but should be treated.
authors.affiliation: From the *Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases; †Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia; and ‡British Columbia Center for Disease Control Public Health Microbiology and Reference Lab, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Abeer
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Najjar
authors.forename: Ghada N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Al-Rawahi
authors.forename: Linda M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Hoang
authors.forename: Tobias R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Kollmann
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D058889:Molecular Typing; D010019:Osteomyelitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology