[Tuberculous colitis - diagnostic and therapeutic aspects (author's transl)]

Secondary tuberculous enterocolitis is a rare disease since tuberculostatic drugs have been introduced. Leading symptoms are abdominal pain, loss of weight and diarrhoea. Clinical symptoms, laboratory tests, x-ray, and endoscopic findings may lead to the erroneous diagnosis of colon carcinoma. Coloscopy including biopsy may lead the path to the correct diagnosis; they may in some cases, however, not be conclusive. Surgery is not necessarily mandatory as treatment; drug treatment alone may cause complete healing of intestinal tuberculosis, as a case reported here shows.