Spinal involvement in chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis - diagnostics, treatment and what remains in the shadows: A literature review

Table 1 The publications focus on the epidemiology of spinal involvement, diagnostic imaging, treatment strategies, and long-term outcomes in pediatric chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis patients

Ref.	Year	Journal type	Publication type	Country of study	Patient's age group (age range)	Main topic (total patients)	Vertebral cases	Treatment	Complications	Specific issues addressed
Hospach et al[1]	2010	Eur J Pediatr	Retrospective cohort	Germany	Pediatric	102	27	Pamidronate	Vertebral deformities	Treatment response, MRI outcomes
Rogers et al[2]	2024	Pediatric Orthopedics	Original research	United States	Children, adolescents (approximately 4–18 years)	Spine involvement, vertebral deformities (170)	48 (27-vertebral bodies)	NSAIDs, bisphosphonates, biologics	Kyphosis, scoliosis, pain	Vertebral deformities and treatment outcomes
Guariento et al[3]	2023	Pediatric Radiology	Original research	Italy	Children (pediatric; not explicitly stated)	MRI findings in spinal CRMO		Not specified (imaging focus)	Not discussed	MRI features of spinal lesions
Gleeson et al[4]	2008	J Rheumatol	Retrospective cohort	Australia	5-14 years	7	5	Pamidronate	Vertebral fractures, kyphosis	Radiological improvement
Shah et al[5]	2022	Clinical Imaging	Review/imaging feature	United States	Children (pediatric, not specified)	Radiological differentiation of CRMO		Not specified (diagnostic focus)	Not specified	Imaging pitfalls and differentiation from infection/malignancy
Andronikou et al[6]	2020	Rheumatology	Review article	United States, United Kingdom	Children (pediatric)	Role of WBMRI in CRMO		Not specified (imaging focus)	Not discussed	Importance of WBMRI for diagnosis
Wipff et al[7]	2015	Rheumatology	Cohort study	France	Pediatric/adolescent	Disease characteristics (178)	40	NSAIDs, immunomodulators	Persistent disease activity	Clinical course, complications
Guérin-Pfyffer et al[8]	2012	Joint Bone Spine	Retrospective study	France	8-14 years	9	4	NSAIDs, pamidronate	Pain	MRI, clinical follow-up
Galeotti et al[10]	2015	Pediatric Radiology	Original research	France	Children (pediatric)	Vertebral fractures on MRI		Not specified	Vertebral collapse, pain	Detection of vertebral fractures via WBMRI
Andreasen et al[11]	2019	Rheumatology	Original research	Denmark	Children, adolescents (mean approximately 10.7 years; 9.9–11.4)	Treatment outcomes in chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis/CRMO (51 patients)	13	NSAIDs, pamidronate, TNF-α inhibitors	Persistent pain, structural deformity	Effectiveness of early bisphosphonate treatment
Kostik et al[12]	2020	Rheumatology	Original research	Russia	Children (pediatric, not explicitly stated)	Treatment outcomes in spinal CRMO	29	NSAIDs, bisphosphonates, TNF inhibitors	Kyphosis, vertebral compression, chronic inflammation	Treatment response in spinal involvement
Chong et al[9]	2014	Rheumatology	Imaging study	South Korea	Pediatric/adolescent	Nuclear medicine imaging (unspecified)		NSAIDs	None specified	Positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging variability

CRMO: Chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging; NSAIDs: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha; WBMRI: Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging.