Delayed diagnosis of tuberculous arthritis

Abstract

Monoarticular tuberculosis (TB) affecting the knee is rare in all forms of TB (0.1-0.3%). We present the case of a patient with tuberculous arthritis in whom the diagnosis was belated due to a lack of familiarity with the disease; here, we emphasize the difficulties associated with the diagnosing joint TB. A 20-year-old man was referred to our department due to swelling of the right knee and the presence of persistent, mild pain for 4 years. The lack of systemic evidence of this disease, the indolent course of disease, and the presence of non-specific symptoms renders early recognition of this disease difficult. Furthermore, in cases in which a diagnosis cannot be reached simply by culturing the synovial fluid, synovial biopsy cultures should be considered in the diagnostic process, due to the high rate of positivity of such cultures. The diagnosis and treatment of articular TB are both urgent matters; surgical debridement and strict adherence to antituberculous chemotherapy tend to yield a satisfactory functional outcome.