A fine line between a major surgery and medical therapy: the diagnosis of sternal tuberculosis

Ayşegül Yeşilkaya; Özlem Kurt Azap; Dalokay Kılıç; Hande Arslan; Halit Üner

doi:10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2014.6905

Ayşegül Yeşilkaya¹, Özlem Kurt Azap¹, Dalokay Kılıç², Hande Arslan¹, Halit Üner³

Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Medical Faculty of Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey
¹Departments of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Medical Faculty of Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey
²Departments of Thoracic Surgery Medical Faculty of Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey
³Departments of Pathology, Medical Faculty of Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey

DOI : 10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2014.6905

Tuberculosis involving the sternum is rare. The most common symptoms at the early stage are chest pain and palpable masses on the sternum. Cutaneous fistulas, spontaneous fracture of sternum and extrasternal spread may develop in cases with late diagnosis. In this article, we report a 53-yearold male case admitted with a one-month history of chest pain and two palpable masses on his lower sternal part of chest in whom the diagnosis of sternal tuberculosis was confirmed by histopathologically and microbiologically. The masses were reduced in size with two-month anti-tubercular therapy. The nine-month duration of the therapy produced satisfactory results without any adverse reactions.

Keywords : Osteomyelitis; sternum; tuberculosis

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