Table 1.

Main etiologic agents for discitis (D) and spondylodiscitis (SD) in pediatric age and their characteristics.

Pathogen	Characteristics
Staphylococcus aureus	Involved in approximately 80% of the cases that occur in the first months of life and in older children
Kingella kingae	Main pathogens in children between 6 months and 4 years
Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, α-hemolytic Streptococcus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Gram-negative rods such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp.	Less frequently identified
Mycobacterium tuberculosis	Mainly diagnosed in some developing or emerging countries, but reported also in industrialized countries
Brucella spp.	Unpasteurized goat cheese consumption
Fungi (i.e., Aspergillus spp., Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans)	Mainly reported in immunocompromised patients