Caption

Inflamed spinal discs. Coloured magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of a side view of the spine of a patient with discitis. The front of the body is at left, the skull is at top. Discitis is an inflammation of the spongy discs that sit between the bones (vertebrae, orange blocks) of the spine. Here the inflammation (light brown) is in the cervical (neck) spine (at C2 and C3). The inflamed discs are pressing on the spinal cord (green), which causes severe pain. It is often caused by infection and treatment is with antibiotics and rest.