GENITOURINARY TUBERCULOSIS BASED ON A SER IES OF 40 CASES

The authors report a series of 40 cases of genitourinary tuberculosis diagnosed and treated in the department of urology ''B'' of Avicenne h ospital over a 7-year period. The objective of this study is to define the various diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of this disease. The p atients were predominantly males (62.5 %) with a mean age of 40 years. 25 % of cases reported a history of extra-urinary tuberculosis. The v ery polymorphous clinical presentation is dominated by signs of cystit is (45 %). Intravenous urography is frequently suggestive of the diagn osis based on the appearance and multiplicity of the lesions. The radi ological lesions most frequently encountered were silent kidney (19 ca ses) and small tuberculous bladder (11 cases). The definitive diagnosi s was established by pathological examination in 38 cases (biopsies, o perative specimens, prostatic resection chips) and/or by demonstration of AFB in 2 cases (urine, pus). Tuberculostatic treatment was adminis tered to all patients, either alone (5 cases) or, more usually, in com bination with surgical and/or endo-urological treatment (35 cases), re flecting the magnitude and severity of the destructive and scar lesion s.