Open AccessExtrapulmonary tuberculosis: a debilitating and often neglected public health problem
Author(s) -
Sudeep Adhikari,
Buddha Basnyat
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
bmj case reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.231
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 1757-790X
DOI - 10.1136/bcr-2018-226098
Subject(s) - medicine , paraplegia , tuberculosis , extrapulmonary tuberculosis , complication , presentation (obstetrics) , pediatrics , surgery , public health , differential diagnosis , intensive care medicine , radiology , mycobacterium tuberculosis , spinal cord , pathology , psychiatry
We report a case of a 33-year-old woman from Nepal who presented to a hospital with paraplegia. She was found to have pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) with lumbar spine involvement, and bilateral psoas abscesses. She had no initial symptoms attributable to pulmonary involvement. Her delayed presentation to the hospital led to complication of TB spine, which compromised the life of this woman working as a labourer. Early diagnosis and treatment of extrapulmonary TB is essential. Awareness regarding symptoms of different forms of extrapulmonary TB and making diagnostic modalities such as CT scan, MRI or biopsy readily available through insurance schemes are some important measures to minimise the problem so that complications like paraplegia as in our patient with spinal TB can potentially be avoided.