• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.234-238
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• 2013

Osteoarticular tuberculosis is often misdiagnosed as other disease because of a rare incidence and nonspecific clinical and radiographic presentation. Therefore, it is important to know clinical and radiographic presentations of osteoarticular tuberculosis and to diagnose in early phase. Especially, fistula formation is one of the most important clinical features which suspects osteoarticular tuberculosis. We report a case of ankle tuberculosis to be misdiagnosed as subtalar osteoarthritis and performed subtalar arthrodesis.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.158-162
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• 2022

The incidence of musculoskeletal tuberculosis (TB) is on the rise due to the current Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) pandemic. Spine is the most common osseous site, followed by other joints. TB identified in the elbow accounts for 2%-5% of skeletal TB cases, which are secondary to pulmonary TB. Primary elbow TB is rare. We report a case of primary TB of the elbow which had a negative synovial biopsy. A 46-year-old right-hand dominant female patient with chronic pain and disability of the right elbow was diagnosed with chronic non-specific arthritis based on an arthroscopic synovial biopsy. The case was diagnosed retrospectively as active TB from bone cuts post total elbow arthroplasty. Anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) was given postoperatively for 12 months. The patient reported good functional outcomes at 3 years of follow-up. Such atypical presentations of osteoarticular TB are challenging to diagnose. Therefore, particularly in endemic areas, clinicians should be careful before excluding such a diagnosis even after a negative biopsy. Further research should investigate whether active TB of small joints such as the elbow can be treated with ATT, and early arthroplasty should be a focus of this research.