A Rare Case of Peritoneal Tuberculosis in a 21 Years Old Male Patient

Abstract

Tuberculosis is among the top 5 causes of death from infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, it most frequently affects the lungs, although it can compromise the digestive tract, genitourinary, peritoneum, pleura, bones, lymph nodes and meninges, composing the group of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Peritoneal involvement is the most common form of abdominal type representing 0.1 to 0.7% of all tuberculosis cases. With nonspecific symptoms, without of laboratory findings that would guide the search for Mycobacteria and imaging tests that overlap common in other pathologies, the diagnosis is difficult. In Abdominal Computed Tomography, ascites, smooth peritoneal thickening, densification of the mesentery root, lymphadenomegaly with central necrosis or calcification are observed. Laparoscopy with the biopsy and collection of ascitic fluid is used as a method for diagnosis. The mortality of abdominal tuberculosis can reach 15% and perforation of intestinal loops, malnutrition, anemia, hypoalbuminemia are the main complications. We present the case of a patient presenting recurrent umbilical hernia, whose diagnosis of peritoneal tuberculosis was made during surgery.