Document Type : Case Report
Authors
1 Department of General Surgery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
2 General Surgery Department, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
3 Department of Internal medicine, School of medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
The co-existence of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and tuberculosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality because of a widespread organ involvement. The gastrointestinal tract is a common site for localization of opportunistic microorganisms in AIDS. However, surgical abdominal emergencies such as intestinal perforation resulted from tuberculosis are uncommon in these patients. The asymptomatic occurrence of such intestinal perforation has not been reported our knowledge. We represent an HIV and HCV co-infected man with miliary tuberculosis and an incidentally detected free air under diaphragm in the chest X-ray eventually resulting in exploratory laparotomy which then revealed two tubercular-induced intestinal perforations. It seems that as the tuberculosis is increasing in incidence, mostly due to reactivation in HIV-infected patients especially in developing countries, we should not underestimate its acute abdominal emergencies such as bowel perforation.
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