Abdominal tuberculosis

Abdominal tuberculous can manifest in almost every abdominopelvic organ:

• gastrointestinal tuberculosis
  • esophageal tuberculosis
  • gastric tuberculosis
  • duodenal tuberculosis
  • jejunal and ileal tuberculosis
  • ileocecal tuberculosis
  • colorectal tuberculosis
• tuberculous peritonitis
• tubercular lymphadenopathy
• visceral tuberculosis
  • hepatic tuberculosis
  • gallbladder tuberculosis
  • pancreatic tuberculosis
  • splenic tuberculosis
  • genitourinary tuberculosis
  • renal tuberculosis
    • Kerr kink
    • putty kidney
  • bladder and ureteric tuberculosis
  • prostatic tuberculosis
  • scrotal tuberculosis (testes, epididymis, seminal vesicles, vas deferens)
  • tuberculous pelvic inflammatory disease (female)
    • tuberculosis of the Fallopian tube​

Pathology

There are three main pathways for tuberculous infection of the abdomen ^1,2:

• ingestion of infected milk or sputum initially affects gastrointestinal tract mucosa, followed by the remainder of the bowel wall, regional lymph nodes and peritoneum
• haematogenous spread to the peritoneum, lymph nodes and solid viscera
• direct spread to the peritoneum, e.g. from skeletal tuberculosis via a psoas abscess