Spinal Tuberculosis

Summary

Hello All,

In this articles i'm going to discuss about my true experience of spinal TB (Bone TB) to create awareness on TB disease.

Treatment

January 2016 - I was coughing continuously and used to get fever once/ twice a week.

March 2016 - My right hip started paining after sitting/sleeping for a while and pain used to reduce by it's own after few minutes of walking.

May 2016 - Hip pain became worse and i was unable to walk, i have visited doctor and he suspected   it as sciatic nerve pain after checking X-Ray report which is normally caused due to disk problem in spine. So he gave steroid drugs with anti-inflammatory properties. After taking the medication pain was disappear and i was able to walk normally.

June 2016 - Anti inflammatory medication is completed and pain re-occurred again after 20 days and this time i was feeling weakness in right hip and unable to move the leg, i had to move my right leg with my hand and feeling pain in hip joint while trying to move. Visited the doctor again and he suggested to attend physiotherapy sessions to strengthen the back muscle so that the pressure on sciatica nerve is reduced. so i have attended physiotherapy sessions 1 week but there is no improvement.

So we have consulted another doctor and he suggested to get MRI scan done to diagnose the same. After checking MRI scan report he said there is an infection which is affecting spinal cord and he suspected it as Spinal Tuberculosis (Bone TB) or Bone cancer and suggested to visit multi specialty hospital in near by city.

We have immediately  traveled to near by city and consulted neuro surgery specialist, he initially suspected it as Bone TB and given anti-TB medication and told to consult after using anti-TB medicine for 2 months.

July 2016 - Hip pain was increasing day by day, after 20 days we have consulted the doctor again and explained the situation and he suggested to admit in hospital to diagnoses the same.

They have done biopsy and removed 4 small pieces of bone and soft muscle tissues to test the infection, after waiting for 1 week finally reports came with no results (no infection found in bone and muscle tissue samples)

So they have suggested to under go with surgery to drain the pus and to collect large biopsy samples.

He said infection is spreading from spinal bones to surrounding muscles and hence pus is getting generated which is creating pressure on nerve and hence hip joint became weak and preventing to move the right leg he also found the infection is spreaded to right hip joint which is causing hip pain.

August 2016
Surgery has been completed and biopsy reports came after 7 days and TB was detected in bone samples, they have drained pus which was creating nerve pressure and hence hip weakness is started reducing.

Hip infection and pain was also started reducing slowly since i was taking anti-TB drugs.

September 2016
25th day after surgery i'm able to walk again after 3 months :) with little pain in hip joint and back muscle tightness at surgery site it will take 1 or 2 months to get recover completely.

If you have any doubts / need any knowledge on TB disease then please comment below.