A Case of Appendicular Tuberculosis Presenting as Acute Appendicitis / 대한소화기학회지

ABSTRACT

Tuberculosis may affect primarily all organs and tissues of the body, although some of these show high immunity against the infection. The most common forms of non-pulmonary tuberculosis are tuberculosis of bones and joints (30%), urinary system (24%), lymph nodes (13%), sexual organs (8%), cerebrospinal meninges (4%), and alimentary system (3%). Especially, the commonest presentation of abdominal tuberculosis is ileocecal disease, but isolated appendicular involvement is also rarely seen, occuring in only 1.5% to 3% of cases in the absence of pulmonary or other abdominal involvement. The appendix may either be involoved secondary to ileocecal tuberculosis, or to tuberculosis at another site within the abdomen, or may occur in the even, rarer "isolated" form, without the evidence of disease elsewhere. We report a case of acute appendicitis underwent appendectomy and histopathologic examination of appendix revealed appendicular tuberculosis.