Tubercular pleural effusion is the second most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) seen in clinical practice after tuberculosis (TB) lymphadenitis. It is common that after complete treatment of the patient with tubercular pleural effusion with six months of the short-course chemotherapy under Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course (DOTS), pleural effusion has not resolved completely. In these cases treatment need to be extended for one or two more months by giving extension pouches. Since DOTS does not recommend demonstration of complete resolution of tubercular pleural effusion at the end of treatment completion, there is paucity of data in terms of the patients declared cure for the sputum negative pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB as such which includes TB pleural effusion as well. This project aims to look into the patient characteristics, treatment outcome, and compute the number of cases which require an extended regimen and to what extent is the pleural effusion persistent at the end of six months of standard DOTS therapy.
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Complete resolution of pleural effusion on ultrasonogram
Timeframe: 6 months