Untreated Active Tuberculosis in Pregnancy with Intraocular Dissemination: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Background. Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that affects hundreds of millions of people across the world. However, the incidence in developed countries has decreased over the past decades causing physicians to become unfamiliar with its unspecific symptoms. Pregnant individuals are especially difficult because many symptoms of active TB can mimic normal physiological changes of pregnancy. We present a case report of a 26-year-old multiparous woman, G4P3003, at 38-week gestation with a history of positive PPD who emigrated from Ghana 6 years ago. She came to the hospital with an initial complaint of suprapubic pain, pressure, and possible leakage of amniotic fluid for the past week. Patient also complained of a productive cough for the past 3 to 4 months with a decrease in vision occurring with the start of pregnancy. Visual acuity was worse than 20/200 in both eyes. Definitive diagnosis of active TB was delayed due to patient refusal of chest X-ray. Fortunately, delay in diagnosis was minimized since patient delivered within 24 hours of admission. Active TB was confirmed with intraocular dissemination. Patient had optic atrophy OS (left eye) and papillitis, choroiditis, and uveitis OD (right eye) due to TB infiltration. Fetus was asymptomatic and anti-TB therapy was started for both patients.

Surgical treatment of persistent vaginal granulation tissue using CO(2) laser vaporization under colposcopic and laparoscopic guidance.

INTRODUCTION: There have been many reports in the literature on vaginal mesh erosion as a complication of pelvic floor reconstructive surgery. Several reports describe successful surgical excision of the exposed mesh as a resolution. However, in rare cases of mesh erosion, poor surgical outcomes and multiple resection failures have been reported. We describe an innovative surgical approach to persistent vaginal mesh erosion using CO(2) laser vaporization under colposcopic and laparoscopic guidance. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 58-y-old postmenopausal woman first presented with a 3-y history of vaginal discharge and spotting after undergoing a Mentor ObTape transobturator sling (Mentor Corp, Santa Barbara, CA), for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. Despite surgical removal of the mesh and multiple attempts at cauterization of persistent granulation tissue, her symptoms persisted. DISCUSSION: Using a CO(2) laser under colposcopic and laparoscopic guidance, we were able to safely expose and remove the remaining portion of retained mesh. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing CO(2) laser vaporization as a surgical approach for the successful treatment of recurrent mesh erosion.