Akhtrar Ahmed Ansari, Naheed Sultan, Sa Sultan Ali, Saeed Ahmed Memon.
Frequency of abdominal tuberculosis in patient with acute abdomen and its presentation in Civil Hospital, Karachi.
Pak J Surg Jan ;31(2):120-3.

Objective: To determine the frequency of abdominal tuberculosis in patients with acute abdomen and its presentation in Civil Hospital, Karachi. Study design: Prospective observational study. Sett ing and duration: Surgical Unit-1, Civil Hospital, Karachi from October 2010 to April 2012. Methodology: Total of 234 patients with the diagnosis of acute abdomen underwent emergency exploratory laparotomy. Preoperative and per operative fi ndings were noted. Biopsy was taken where required. Results: Out of 234 patients with acute abdomen 68 patients were diagnosed histopathologically as abdominal tuberculosis. Mean age was 27.94 years with female predominant (64.70%). Most Common presentation was abdominal pain followed by abdominal distension, vomiting, fever, Constipation, weight loss, history of lump formation and night sweats. Abdominal tenderness is most common followed by rigidity, increased gut sound and ascites. Per operative fi nding included small bowel perforation 42 (61.76%), intestinal strictures 38 (55.88%), adhesions 30 (44.11%), mesenteric lymphadenitis 22 (32.35%) and ileocecal mass 14 (20.88%) patients. Conclusion: Patients in our geographic area with acute abdomen should be considered as abdominal tuberculosis until proven otherwise.

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