A 14-year-old boy presenting with gradual abdominal distension and occasional abdominal pain for 2 years (original) (raw)

Abdominal tuberculosis in children: A real‐world experience of 218 cases from an endemic region

JGH Open

Background and Aim: Abdominal tuberculosis (ATB) in children poses a diagnostic challenge because of its nonspecific clinical features, which often delay the diagnosis. Our aim was to present our real-world experience and provide an insight into the presentation, pattern of distribution, and diagnosis of the disease. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of case records of all children ≤12 years of age diagnosed with ATB from January 2007 to January 2018. Clinical details and investigations were recorded and analyzed. Results: A total of 218 children (110 boys), with a median age of 10 (0.25-12) years, were included. There was a median delay of 4 (0.5-36) months in establishing the diagnosis. Abdominal pain, fever, and loss of weight were the most common presenting features, with the triad of symptoms present in 54%. Multiple intra-abdominal sites were involved in 118 (54%) patients, with a combination of the gastrointestinal tract (I) and abdominal lymph nodes (L) being the most common (53/118). Among children with single-site involvement (n = 100), the most commonly involved was L in 39 (39%), followed by I in 35(35%). Loss of weight was more common in children with involvement of multiple sites (85/118 vs 60/100, P = 0.03). Overall, a confirmed diagnosis was possible in 94 participants (43.1%). Suggestive imaging had the highest diagnostic yield of 85%. Nine (4.1%) patients needed surgical management. Conclusion: A triad of abdominal pain, fever, and weight loss is suggestive of ATB. Multiple intra-abdominal sites are frequently involved. Microbiological confirmation is possible in only one-third of the cases.

A 12-year-old boy presented with jaundice, abdominal distension and leg edema

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Journal

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 12-year-old immunized boy, 3rd issue of consanguineous parents, presented with jaundice for the last 4 months and gradual abdominal distension for last 2 months. Mother also mentioned the swelling of both ankles for the same duration. He had anorexia, nausea and generalized weakness. There was no history of previous jaundice, blood transfusion, surgical procedure, history of taking offending drugs, no family history of liver disease, deterioration of school performance or neuropsychiatric manifestations, bleeding manifestations, behavioral abnormality, altered consciousness or convulsion.

A 12-year-old boy presented with fever and left-sided upper abdominal pain

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Journal

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 12-year-old boy of non-consanguineous parents presented with the history of fever and left sided upper abdominal pain for 1 month. His fever was high grade, intermittent, associated with chills and rigor. The abdominal pain was dull aching in nature without any radiation, aggravating or relieving factors. His bowel habit was normal. The child had no history of jaundice, cough, respiratory distress, burning sensation during micturition, earache, skin infection, contact with tubercular patient, blood transfusion or parenteral medica-tion. On examination, she was fretful, febrile, mode-rately pale, and anicteric. Tachycardia was present. Per abdominal examination revealed tenderness at the left hypochondriac region.

Abdominal Tuberculosis in Children- A Case Report

European Journal of Molecular Medicine , 2021

Abdominal tuberculosis (TB) is a rare manifestation of TB and constitutes approximately 12% of extrapulmonary TB cases. Abdominal TB prevalence is relatively high in children and immunocompromised patients. Diagnosis of abdominal TB is often delayed in developing countries due to the lack of specific symptoms and proper diagnostic tests