Tuberculous infection in a vascular prosthesis: a case of aortic graft infection resulting from disseminated tuberculosis

Abstract

Insertion of an aortic prosthetic bypass graft in a patient with untreated disseminated tuberculosis resulted in graft infection with formation of a pseudoaneurysm. Microbiologic cultures implicated Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the causative agent, and a subsequent review of the literature indicated this report to be the first clinical demonstration of the susceptibility of vascular prosthesis to M tuberculosis infection to our knowledge.