Abdominal tuberculosis and spontaneous miscarriage

We present a case report of a 23-year-old Pakistani woman who had a second trimester spontaneous miscarriage while visiting her family in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A dilatation and curettage (D&C) was done after the miscarriage. She developed sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome, requiring intensive care unit admission a few days after the D&C. An exploratory laparotomy was done and she was found to have a pelvic abscess. Despite adequate broad spectrum antimicrobial cover, she continued to drain a copious amount of serous fluid from the peritoneal cavity, with persistent fever and a stiff lung with difficult weaning off mechanical ventilation. Tuberculosis PCR of the peritoneal fluid came back positive. A histological finding of necrotising granuloma from the postoperative omental specimen and a positive culture from the ascitic fluid confirmed the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Antituberculous treatment was started and she made a speedy recovery.