Post-arthroscopy Tuberculosis of the Knee Joint: An Analysis of Incidence, Presentation, Diagnosis and Treatment Outcome

Introduction: Tuberculosis of the knee joint is not very much common. It is the third highest affected site after spine and hip in osteoarticular tuberculosis. Diagnosis of TB knee is difficult because the clinical features are not typical. Ligaments reconstruction, meniscus surgery and many other procedures can successfully be done by arthroscopy in knee joint. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence, clinical and laboratory findings and assess the treatment outcome of post arthroscopy MTB infections of the knee joint. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Ibn Sina Knee Centre, Dhaka and Northern International Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from February 2015 to January 2020. Purposive sampling technique used in the selection of the study patients. Somehow we selected 7 patients for the study with unusual presentations of night cries after arthroscopic procedures. Statistical data were analysed by MS-Excel 2016. Result: We describe 7 cases of isolated MTB infection after arthroscopic procedures in immuno-competent patients as study people for our inquiry. Almost all the study patients 6 (85.71%) treated by anti- TB drugs and 1 (14.29%) treated with MDR-TB drug. Almost all patients 6 (85.71%) had gain excellent results and 1 (14.29%) had good results. So we found a satisfactory result in the post arthroscopy tuberculosis of the knee joint with this treatment. Conclusion: We found Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (MTB) infection as a complication after arthroscopic procedures like anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and or meniscus surgery of the knee joint.