This was the case of a 34-year-old detainee with back pain which had not been alleviated by pharmacological treatment. The patient was extremely debilitated.
During the neurological exam the patient presented no motor or sensory deficits.
He underwent a lumbar MRI with and without contrasts that showed an extended accumulation of suppurating matter in the paravertebral region which involved T11-T12 (Figure 3). This was eroding them and causing the beginning of a kyphosis of the rachis. Initially the patient was treated with the placement of a drainage tube, using the technique of interventionist radiology. The result obtained was unsatisfactory as it failed to reduce pain and it failed to reduce the accumulated suppuration.
It was then decided that the patient should undergo an operation, a right side lateral thoracotomy, under general anaesthesia. The patient was positioned in lateral decubitus with his right arm raised. An oral-tracheal tube was placed so as to omit the right side lung. The vertebral field was reached by dislocating the lung and the diaphragmatic cupola. There then was a debridement with resection of all infected and necrotic tissue so as to visualise the inferior end plate of T10 and the superior end plate of L1 (Figure 4). 
Samples were collected for the histological and bacteriological exams as well as cultures.
An expansion mesh was placed; it was gradually expanded so as to reduce as much as possible the kyphosis (measurements of the mesh were determined by the preop CT). There then followed numerous washes (2000cc) using a 0.9% physiological solution and a thoracic drain was placed. This latter was removed after about 7 days on complete normalisation of the thoracic region. The patient, wearing a corset, was able to get up 8 days after the operation. 
This patient also had to undergo antibiotic therapy for tuberculosis. The bacteriological exam undertaken during the operation had revealed a tubercular infection. This was confirmed by further cultures. The treatment was carried on for further 6 months.
It was decided that no posterior stabilisation needed to be done considering the age of the patient and the good degree of kyphosis reduction after the initial operation.
In all successive checkups, at the last 36 months, the patient has shown maintenance of the rachises curvature without any signs of kyphosis.