Extrapulmonary head and neck tuberculosis: 3 year experience at a tertiary care centre

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by Mycobacterium group of microbe. Most common manifestation of the disease is pulmonary TB. Involvement of other sites is termed as extrapulmonary TB (EPTB). These extrapulmonary sites are head and neck region, renal system, pleura, central nervous system and bones. This study was to find out the various head and neck manifestations of TB.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> All head and neck cases of TB diagnosed during the period 2017-2020 were included in the study. Recurrent cases of TB and those patients with primary pulmonary TB focus having head and neck manifestation were excluded from the study.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results: </strong>63 patients fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The disease was found to be more in females (65.07%). The most common EPTB manifestation in head and neck region was the involvement of cervical lymph nodes followed by laryngeal TB. Level II was the most common involved lymph node group. We noted three cases of temporal bone TB and one case of nasal TB.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In regions where the disease is endemic, there can be various atypical clinical presentations. Early diagnosis is of utmost importance in initiation of appropriate treatment.</p>