A Case of Chronic Arthritis Due to Mycobacterium intracellulare after Trauma.

Kim, Jae Gyung; Kim, Dae Won; Cho, Yul Hee; Yim, Sun Mie; Kang, Ju Hyun; Joo, Young Bin; Kang, Hyeon Hui; Song, Jeong Sup; Yoon, Hyoung Kyu

doi:2012.72.2.191

Tuberc Respir Dis > Volume 72(2); 2012 > Article

Case Report

Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases 2012;72(2):191-196.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4046/trd.2012.72.2.191 Published online February 1, 2012.

A Case of Chronic Arthritis Due to Mycobacterium intracellulare after Trauma.

Jae Gyung Kim, Dae Won Kim, Yul Hee Cho, Sun Mie Yim, Ju Hyun Kang, Young Bin Joo, Hyeon Hui Kang, Jeong Sup Song, Hyoung Kyu Yoon

Department of Internal Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. cmcyhg@catholic.ac.kr

Abstract

While nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) infections are recently on the rise, arthritis caused by NTM is hardly reported in Korea. NTM arthritis has no distinctive clinical characteristics from chronic arthritis. Tuberculosis of the joint specifically produces similar clinical and pathologic presentations to NTM arthritis, so it is not easy to distinguish between them. We report a case of Mycobacterium intracellulare in an arthritis patient after trauma and surgical repair of the injury. At the beginning, the patient was diagnosed as tuberculous tenosynovitis through pathology without microbiologic evidence. The final diagnosis was made after subsequent recurrences for several years. The misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis led to irreversible joint destruction and functional impairment. NTM infection must be included in the differential diagnosis of chronic arthritis at the outset.

Key Words: Arthritis, Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare Infection, Wounds and Injuries