Non-pulmonary surgical tuberculosis

Abstract

Abstract Fifty-one cases of non-pulmonary surgical tuberculosis are reviewed, 29 of the cases being immigrants. Of the 44 ‘new’ cases, tuberculosis was not among the preoperative differential diagnoses in 15. Lymphnodes were the site of the disease in more than half the cases. In only 29 cases was an operative specimen sent for bacteriological culture, and the necessity for culturing operative specimens and the reasons for the failure of isolation of tubercle bacilli in 50 per cent of the cultures are discussed. The impression that tuberculosis is not sufficiently considered by doctors in the preoperative differential diagnosis of several surgical presentations, especially in English patients, is confirmed.