The authors report a case of actinomycosis with primitive site in the pleura and lungs, which probably by contiquity involved the thoracic wall. The tissues surrounding the thoracolumbar column have been affected, originating extensive vertebral actinomycotic osteomyelitis; the sickening of the dura caused a mild syndrome of radiculospinal compression; there were no anatomic changes producing total spinal block. There is no reference, in Brazilian literature, to this nervous complication of actimycosis, and it is the first time the species Cohnistreptotrix israelii has been found in São Paulo, perhaps in Brazil.
