Diagnosis and treatment of congenital tuberculosis: a systematic review of 92 cases

Congenital tuberculosis is rare and carries a high mortality rate. Our objective was to summarize the current experience of the diagnosis and treatment of patients with congenital tuberculosis.

In total, 73 reported cases of congenital tuberculosis published in Chinese and 19 patients with congenital tuberculosis admitted to West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, were retrospectively reviewed.

Sixty-four male and 28 female patients were identified. The majority of the patients were less than 3 weeks old at the time of presentation (range, 0–67 days). With regard to the tuberculosis type, 89 patients had pulmonary tuberculosis, and 20 patients had hepatic tuberculosis. There was active tuberculosis in 71 mothers, no tuberculosis in 12 mothers, and an unknown history of tuberculosis in 9 mothers. Fever, cyanosis, jaundice, shortness of breath, cough, pulmonary moist rales, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and abdominal distention were the main clinical symptoms at the time of presentation. The abnormal ratios of chest, abdomen and head radiographic images were 97.53, 75 and 81.25%, respectively. The positive rates of acid-fast staining of sputum smears and tuberculosis bacillus DNA were 62.50 and 66.67%, respectively. The misdiagnosis rate was 59.78%. The overall mortality due to congenital tuberculosis was 43.48%. Respiratory failure was the most common cause of death. Sixty-five patients received anti-tuberculosis therapy, and of those, only 16 (15.38%) died.

The clinical manifestations and radiographic findings of congenital tuberculosis are nonspecific. It is important to thoroughly evaluate the mothers of infants with suspected congenital tuberculosis. Good outcomes can be achieved in infants with the early identification of congenital tuberculosis and early administration of anti-tuberculosis treatment.