A 56-year-old man with alcohol-associated cirrhosis, arterial hypertension and diabetes, presented with a 1-month history of fever, lumbar back pain and lower limb weakness. MRI revealed a spinal epidural abscess extending from the cervical to the dorsolumbar spine. A methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus strain was isolated on blood cultures. Meropenem was initially started with no response, and then changed to vancomycin. During treatment, the patient's condition progressed with anasarca and renal failure with nephrotic-range proteinuria. The renal biopsy showed a membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis with IgA deposition. After completing 2 months of antibiotic therapy the patient recovered from the neurological deficits, with a complete resolution of the abscess and partial recovery of renal function and proteinuria.
2015 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.