Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis: An Overview

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacterium that as a single agent is known to cause the infection with the most morbidity and mortality around the world. It is known to cause pulmonary infection in immunocompetent patient, but its dissemination outside the lungs has been linked to a high degree of cellular immunosuppression as seen in the advance stages of human immunodeficiency virus infection, and after chemotherapy. Despite extensive research, screening, education, and continuous efforts to try to eradicate and control the infection, tuberculosis is still one of the most prevalent infections throughout the world. Even the cases of extra pulmonary dissemination are seen to have increased. Extra pulmonary tuberculous dissemination has a very variable presentation that depends on the organ involved. The diagnosis is difficult and many times a long time passes between diagnosis and initial presentation. In this chapter, we will review how tuberculosis infection presents when the bacilli invades any tissue outside the pulmonary parenchyma, what the literature recommends for the proper work up and diagnosis, and general treatment for major organ system infection.