A rare presentation of tuberculosis in the belly

What is it about?

Tuberculosis is a serious disease which can be hard to diagnose. Tuberculosis occurs primarily in the lungs but can also occur at other body sites including the belly. We report on a 19-year old Inuit living in Greenland. He had suffered from tiredness, weight loss and pain in the belly. He was diagnosed with a rare type of hernia in the belly. He was operated for the hernia, and during surgery it turned out that he had tuberculosis in the belly. He was treated with medication and recovered fully. The report decribes a very rare presentation of tuberculosis.

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Why is it important?

Abdominal tuberculosis is a common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Often it is difficult to diagnose due to vague symptoms and lack of clinical findings. Spigelian hernia is a rare type of hernia located in the semilunar fascia of the abdominal rectus muscular sheath. We report on a 19-year-old Greenlandic Inuit man with a spigelian hernia as the primary presentation of abdominal tuberculosis. Abdominal tuberculosis presenting with a spigelian hernia is extremely rare, and the case illustrates that tuberculosis may present in myriad ways. The incidence of tuberculosis in Greenland is among one of the highest in the world, and we also review the history and incidence of tuberculosis in this Arctic country.

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