Ten-year experience with artificial pneumoperitoneum for end-stage, drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis

Artificial pneumoperitoneum is a form of collapse therapy that was used in the treatment of cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis before the availability of antimycobacterial chemotherapy. We report a series of cases of far-advanced pulmonary disease due to multiple-drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, wherein artificial pneumoperitoneum with or without subsequent surgical extirpation was used as an adjunct to chemotherapy. Overall, among these desperate cases, therapeutic pneumoperitoneum provided no clear benefit.