Nocardial Paraspinal Abscess in a Renal Transplant Recipient: Defying Timelines and Clinical Presentation – Masquerading as Acute Disc Prolapse – A Rare Case

Nocardia is an aerobic gram-positive filamentous branching bacterium. It causes infections which results either from trauma-related introduction of the organism or from inhalation resulting in a pulmonary focus particularly in immune compromised patients. Systemic nocardiosis occurs in patients with deficient cell-mediated immunity, such as patients with haematopoietic malignancies, Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection and organ transplant recipients on immunosuppressive drugs. Though nocardiosis presents as paraspinal abscess in renal transplant recipients, we report a patient who presented as acute low back ache and was diagnosed as having acute disc prolapse and referred for orthopaedic consultation.