The value of surgical resection in patients with multidrug resistant tuberculosis

Multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) still continues to be a serious health problem throughout the world. Although main treatment of MDR-TB is medical, surgical resection with adjuvant medical therapy may increase the chance of cure in selected patients.

We performed surgical resections in 55 patients between 1997 and 2005; 36 were male and 19 were female with a median age of 34 years (range 13 to 66 years). Sputum was negative for 49 patients and positive for 6 patients in the preoperative period. Patients were treated according to a new therapy protocol for a mean of 3.7 months before the operation.

Lobectomy was performed in 37 patients, pneumonectomy in 17 patients and lobectomy + segmentectomy in 1 patient. One patient with positive sputum preoperatively died in the early postoperative period (mortality: 1.81 %). Various complications occurred in 16 (29.09 %) patients. Prolonged air leak was the most common complication (n = 8). Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) + empyema occurred in 2 (3.63 %) patients. In the postoperative period, sputum negativity was achieved in all patients except three cases throughout the 57 months of follow-up (cure rate 94.5 %). Patients received drug therapy for 24 months postoperatively.

Surgical resection with adjuvant drug therapy increases the chance of cure in patients with localized disease if they have an adequate cardiopulmonary reserve, favorable nutritional status and are treated with a new therapy protocol for at least 3 months.