Tuberculosis of the sternoclavicular joints

From May 1991 to December 1997, we treated 9 patients with tubercular arthr itis in 10 sternoclavicular joints. The patients presented with a painful s welling (7 joints), painless swelling (2 joints) and a painless (?) dischar ging sinus (1 joint) having a mean duration of symptoms of 13 (6-32) months . The diagnosis was made with fine-needle aspiration or open biopsy. In 1 p atient debridement of the joint was combined with open biopsy. All patients were initially put on a 4-drug regimen of antitubercular therapy (ATT). 2 joints not responding to closed treatment were surgically debrided after 2- 3 months of ATT. Total duration of ATT was 14-18 months. At final follow-up after average 4.5 (1.5-7.5) years, all lesions had healed. 3 patients had mild limitation of shoulder motion, with no pain, and 2 patients had a cosm etically ugly sear at the site of the sinus or biopsy.