Tuberculous Affection of the Upper Limb Joints

Abstract

Among patients with tuberculosis of bones and joints, tuberculous involvement of the shoulder is rather rare and is encountered in 1.0%–3.0% of cases [48, 64, 93, 96, 109, 120] (Table 1, see p. 11). In our material 17 patients (3.7%) with tuberculous arthritis of the shoulder were present. Multifocal bone lesions are described in the majority of patients with tuberculosis of the shoulder [147]. In our material 5 of the 17 patients presented multifocal tuberculous osseous foci, situated in the elbow (two cases), in the sacroiliac joint (two cases) and in the contralateral shoulder (one case). Adult patients are more frequently affected than children [90, 109, 120, 147, 161, 171], and previous or active pulmonary tuberculosis or pleuritis as a sign of hematogenous spread of bacilli is found in the majority of cases [147, 174].