Introduction:

Osteoarticular tuberculosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, very rare, and with an atypical clinical picture and occurs with an incidence of 1-2% of all TB cases.

Objective:

Show a rare form of TB´s presentation in Honduras

Case presentation:

Two-year-old girl with an initial diagnosis of right knee synovitis of five months of evolution and treated with antibiotics and analgesics. Without improvement, she attends to emergencies service with inflammatory changes. Knee x-rays show osteolytic lesions at the kneecap level and the condyle of the right femur. Sputum bacilloscopy and negative tuberculin test were performed. She had a third-grade relative positive to tuberculosis a year and a half ago. A right knee soft tissue and bone biopsies confirm the diagnosis of arthritis by Mycobacterium tuberculosis by immuno-histochemical study with Ziehl Nielsen staining.

Conclusions:

It is the first osteoarticular TB case report in a pediatric patient described in Honduras. Because of the long evolution of the disease, the atypicalness of its clinic features and its low incidence, it is difficult to establish the final diagnosis. Anatomopathological study by biopsy was essential to clarify the diagnosis to clinicians and initiate timely treatment.

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