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Bone and joint TB at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital 1986 to 2002

N C Mkandawire1, E Kaunda

  • 1Department of Orthopaedics, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi. ncmkandawire@malawi.net

Tropical Doctor
|February 17, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Bone and joint tuberculosis (TB) accounted for 1.6% of all TB cases, with spinal TB being most common. Numbers remained stable despite a rise in overall TB cases during the HIV pandemic.

Area of Science:

  • Medicine
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Orthopedics

Background:

  • Tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant global health challenge.
  • Bone and joint TB represent a specific subset of TB with distinct clinical implications.
  • The HIV pandemic has been shown to influence TB incidence and presentation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify the proportion of bone and joint TB among all registered TB cases.
  • To analyze trends in bone and joint TB over a 17-year period (1986-2002).
  • To investigate the distribution of skeletal TB, particularly spinal involvement.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective audit of TB cases registered at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH).
  • Data collection spanned from 1986 to 2002.
  • Analysis focused on identifying cases of bone and joint TB and their characteristics.

Main Results:

  • A total of 37,075 TB cases were reviewed.
  • 599 cases (1.6%) involved the skeletal system (bone and joint TB).
  • Spinal TB constituted 90% of all skeletal TB cases. Absolute numbers of skeletal TB remained relatively constant (14-58 cases/year), while total TB cases increased significantly from 657 to 3469 annually.

Conclusions:

  • Bone and joint TB, predominantly affecting the spine, represents a small but consistent proportion of overall TB cases.
  • The stable incidence of skeletal TB contrasts with the rising trend of total TB cases during the HIV pandemic.
  • Further research into the specific factors influencing skeletal TB is warranted.

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