4th time is a charm: Peritoneal tuberculosis and how difficult is to reach it

Abstract

Tuberculosis has an increased incidence in the last few years due to the phenomenon of migration and remains a public health problem in certain regions of the world. The abdominal form is the sixth leading cause of extrapulmonary TB, after lymphatic, genitourinary, osteoarticular, miliary and meningeal. Usually, is more prevalent in <40years old females and due to its nonspecific clinical manifestations remains a clinical challenge for most physicians. We present the case of 42-‐year-‐old female with peritoneal tuberculosis (PTB). The patient suffered from abdominal pain and increasing abdominal perimeter 13 days prior to admission. She went to the emergency department four times in 10 days and was discharged with multiple diagnosis. The diagnosis was established on the basis of clinical features, findings from an abdominal tomography scan and histopathological analysis of peritoneal biopsy. The aim of this review is to expose the struggle experience diagnosing such a challenging disease.