Abdominal Tuberculosis Revisited – A single institutional experience of 72 cases over 3 years

Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is one of the oldest diseases of mankind. Because of effective control measures abdominal tuberculosis has become rare but still prevalent. The twin disaster of dual infection with HIV resulted in the resurgence of tuberculosis. The objective of this study is to know the various modes of presentation, different modalities of diagnosis especially laparoscopy, treatment and prognosis in our set up. The study population consisted of 72 patients who were diagnosed to have abdominal tuberculosis proven by either histopathology (93%) or mycobacteriology (7%). The study included peritoneal Tuberculosis (51.4%), intestinal Tuberculosis (48.7%) and lymph nodal Tuberculosis (18.1%).Diagnostic Laparoscopy and biopsy (29.2%) was the most common mode of diagnosis. Surgery was indicated in 29.2% patients for complications of Abdominal Tuberculosis like perforation peritonitis and intestinal obstruction. All patients invariably received ATT. 43 out of 52 patients who were followed up recovered completely with treatment while the mortality rate was 8.4%. This study supports the fact that Anti Tubercular treatment is still the treatment of choice in abdominal tuberculosis and surgery is only indicated in complications of abdominal tuberculosis with a gradual decline in radical surgical procedures for the same.