In their article, Oguz et al. have proposed a classification of spinal tuberculosis as a guide to surgical management [4]. They were able to classify all their 76 cases with this classification system retrospectively. I would like to make the following observations in this regard. The usual presentation of spinal tuberculosis is paradiscal involvement of two adjacent vertebrae, the intervening disc and, frequently, a paravertebral or psoas abscess. This classical picture is readily identifiable and presents no diagnostic difficulties. Posterior spinal tuberculosis, where there is isolated involvement of the neural arch, is a rare manifestation of spinal tuberculosis [1, 2]. It is the most common of the different atypical presentations and its incidence has been variously reported to be up to 10% [1]. It is of interest, therefore, that there are no cases of posterior spinal tuberculosis in their large series of patients. It must also be mentioned here that posterior spinal tuberculosis is more prevalent in certain areas, most reports of these originating from the Indian subcontinent [5].
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