Spectrum of abdominal tuberculosis presenting as acute surgical emergency: Relevance in 21st century, a case series

Abdominal tuberculosis presenting as acute surgical emergency continues to be a major issue in developing countries including India. Being an indolent disease with varied presentation, there is a need to describe the epidemiology, clinicopathological nature of the disease. Hence, this series was conducted with the aim of describing our institutional experience in the management of abdominal tuberculosis presenting as acute surgical emergency, outlining the epidemiology, management aspects and the analysis of risk factors for poor outcome in our population.

This was a descriptive series of patients operated for abdominal tuberculosis presenting as acute surgical emergency at a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India from January 2021 to January 2022. All consecutive patients presenting with intestinal obstruction or peritonitis who underwent laparotomy with intra operative and histopathological finding suggestive of tuberculosis were taken for the study.

A total of 30 patients with acute abdominal tuberculosis were included in the study. 56.7% of patients were males; the mean age of presentation was 43 years with majority of patients in the younger to middle age groups. Most (80%) patients were from rural areas with limited access to healthcare. One patient had co-infection with HIV. Five patients had diabetes and six patients had hypertension as co-morbidities. 73.3% of patients had primary intestinal tuberculosis. Majority (76.7%) presented with acute intestinal obstruction. All patients had colicky abdominal pain as a consistent feature. 40% of patients were anaemic and 70% had low serum albumin levels. The most common site of affection was Ileo-cecal region (73.3%) with stricture as the pathology. Segmental resection with end to end anastomosis was the most common procedure performed (46.7%). 26.7% of patients had an adverse post operative complication, and 23.3% had surgical site infection (SSI). The mortality rate in our series was 6.7%. Although coexisting SSI, co-morbidities were associated with increased mortality, it was not found to be statistically significant (p = 0.08). 16 patients were lost to follow up.

Abdominal tuberculosis presenting as acute abdomen continues to challenge surgeons even in the 21st century. Majority in the developing countries present late with varied complications. A high index of clinical suspicion is required for timely diagnosis to reduce the mortality and morbidity of the disease.