Pneumococcal Pyomyositis of the Neck Muscles.

High fever, severe neck pain and neck stiffness can result from meningitis. We report a case of pneumococcal pyomyositis of the neck muscles. A 72-year-old man developed high fever and severe neck pain. His chief complaint mimicked bacterial meningitis. Although his condition was initially suspected to be bacterial meningitis, his cerebrospinal fluid did not show pleocytosis. MRI showed areas of high intensity in the posterior deep neck muscles on short tau inversion recovery (STIR) sequences and gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images. Pneumococcal myositis should therefore be included in the differential diagnosis of severe neck pain with fever.