Deep Neck Inflammatory Diseases: Implication of Cervical Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Early Diagnosis

Deep neck inflammatory disorders such as retropharyngeal abscess and pyogenic cervical spondylitis are potentially life-threatening disorders and are quite rare in healthy individuals. With abnormal findings on emergency cervical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we succeeded in making prompt diagnoses and initiate appropriate treatments. Both cases recovered almost fully without any orthopedic intervention. Especially in the case of pyogenic cervical spondylitis, we could detect the very early stage of the disease by cervical MRI, i.e., the inflammations were confined to the vertebra without affecting adjacent tissues. Thus, emergency MRI of cervical spine would offer reliable methods for diagnosis and speedy treatments of deep neck inflammatory diseases.