Title: Assessing the burden of abdominal tuberculosis in current scenario

Abstract:

The diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis poses quite a unique challenge due to its non-specific clinical presentation and can be a significant cause of mortality and morbidity to patients of any age group.  Diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis can be made by high index  of clinical suspicion and  correlation with radiologic, microbiologic, histopathologic and molecular studies.  While most abdominal TB cases can be treated conservatively with anti-tubercular therapy, still significant number of cases require surgical intervention due to delayed diagnosis and presentation, multi-drug resistant strains and increasing prevalence of HIV infections . The post-operative care is a daunting task for the surgeons in terms of nutritional aspect, as few of these patient may inevitably develop high output fistula, short bowel syndrome and necessity for prolonged TPN with its associated complications. The whole pathophysiology of abdominal tuberculosis is exhaustively discussed in many literatures published so far; however, in this retrospective five-year study of 380 patients ; we attempted to evaluate the burden of this disease from surgical perspective ; the role of surgery in delayed cases with complications and the spectrum of peri-operative challenges to surgeons in an endemic country like India.  Being an otherwise, potentially treatable infectious disease, initiation of anti- tubercular therapy early in the course of the disease process can help to prevent catastrophic consequences and reduce mortality and morbidity.

Biography:

Lira Sangtam is a General and laparoscopic surgeon, at VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, where she also completed her three-years senior residency programme. She also worked as one of the only two surgeons in a remote Island of Lakshadweep, Union territory of India for a year. She has keen interest in minimal access colorectal surgery and pursuing to upgrade her skills in the field.