Factors associated with treatment success for tuberculosis patients: a single center's experience in Turkey

We aimed to evaluate the treatment outcome of pulmonary tuberculosis patients and factors affecting treatment outcomes. We analyzed the records of 586 pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were older than 15 years followed between January 1999 and December 2004. Of these patients, 76.1% were smear-positive for tuberculosis and 23.9% were smear-negative for tuberculosis. The treatment outcomes of all patients analyzed were as follows: treatment success 91.7%, defaulted treatment 5.1%, died 2.4%, failure 0.3%, and transferred out 0.5%. The treatment outcomes of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients were as follows: cured 77.1%, treatment completed 13.5%, defaulted treatment 5.4%, died 2.9%, failure 0.4%, and transferred out 0.7%. In multivariate regression analysis, risk factors for non-successful treatment outcome were determined to be re-treatment patients, patients older than 46 years of age, and the presence of rifampicin resistance. We conclude that application of Directly Observed Therapy may increase treatment success in all patients, especially patients who have risk factors for a low treatment success rate.