[Multi-focal tuberculosis]

Abstract

The authors present 16 cases of multifocal tuberculosis observed over a period of five years on a general medical unit. These cases almost all occurred in immigrants. (14 out of 16) with at least 2 localisations in 9 of them and sometimes 3 or more. The viscera usually affected were, in order, the liver, the lymph nodes, the lungs and pleura, the joints. They emphasise the mildness of the clinical symptoms, the rareness of lung involvement and, on the contrary, the constancy of hepatic involvement so that needle biopsy of the liver is essential in diagnosis.