Analysis of clinical and radiological features of tuberculosis associated pneumothorax.

AIM

To investigate the demographic and clinico-radiological characteristic of patients of tuberculosis presented with pneumothorax in relation to the patients of active pulmonary tuberculosis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The retrospective study was conducted between January 2013 to June 2014 and records of 78 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis with pneumothorax (TP) and 156 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis without pneumothorax (NPT) were analyzed. Demographic, etiologic, clinical, radiographic, and outcome data were collected.

RESULTS

The mean age of tuberculous pneumothorax patients was 38.0±14.3 years and that of non-pneumothorax was 39.5±12.3 years. Most common presenting clinical feature was cough (76.9%) followed by dyspnoea (74.4%), chest pain (64.0%) and fever (56.4%) in TP patients. Chest radiograph showed cavity in 38 (48.7%) TP patients followed by consolidation in 32 (41.0%) patients and infiltration in 33 (42.3%) patients. All the TP patients had undergone underwater seal intercostal tube drainage procedure for the management of pneumothorax. The mean duration between chest drain insertion and removal was 17.14±6.37 days. Twenty-five (32.1%) of the cases developed chest tube drainage related complications.

CONCLUSION

Patients of tuberculous pneumothorax required prolonged period of chest tube drainage and usually showed good response to the treatment.