[Surgery for pulmonary tuberculosis. Review of 33 operated patients]

Surgical treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis is mainly limited to the management of sequelae such as bronchiectasis, hemoptysis and brochopleural fistulae.

To review the data of patients who underwent surgical treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis.

Retrospective review of 33 patients aged 18 to 73 years (24 males) who underwent lung resection surgery for the management of pulmonary tuberculosis. Follow-up data were obtained from outpatient visit records and registries of the national tuberculosis program.

The reasons to perform surgery were the following: fifteen for hemoptysis, nine for lung destruction and nine for an active and multiresistant disease. No patient died in the postoperative period. The morbidity observed included empyema (n =5), pneumothorax (n =2), bronchopleural fistula (n =2) and hemothorax (n =2). At six months of follow up, six of the nine patients with active tuberculosis had negative acid-fast bacilli on sputum smear. Two of these patients died, one due to respiratory failure and another by an unrelated cause. Both dead patients had negative acid-fast bacilli on sputum smear.

Surgery in pulmonary tuberculosis has a high rate of complications but may be useful in selected patients.