Infection and Drug Resistance (Nov 2022)

Primary Multidrug‐resistant Tuberculosis in a Surgeon Secondary to a Needlestick Injury: A Neglected Problem

  • Yang M,
  • Xu M,
  • Zhang X,
  • Zhao H,
  • Hu J,
  • Wang J

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 6651 – 6657

Abstract

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Meifang Yang,1,2,* Min Xu,3,* Xuan Zhang,1,2 Hong Zhao,1,2 Jianhua Hu,1,2 Jie Wang1,2 1State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, National Medical Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Research Units of Infectious Disease and Microecology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China; 3Nursing Department, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jie Wang, Email [email protected]: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are highly at risk for tuberculosis (TB) exposure, particularly those in high TB burden countries. Inoculation TB secondary to needlestick injury is uncommon but can occur in HCWs. Herein, we report an unusual case of primary multidrug‐resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in a surgeon secondary to a needlestick injury while performing thoracentesis on a TB patient, and the surgeon recovered and returned to work after 22 months of anti-TB treatment. We searched the PubMed database and identified 19 cases of inoculation TB secondary to sharp injury in HCWs including the present case. Those cases highlight that primary inoculation of TB even MDR-TB infection should not be neglected in patients suffered needlestick injury when the sharp instrument suspected or confirmed contaminated with TB. In this situation, if the HCWs need for additional protection or prophylactic anti-TB is worthy of further study.Keywords: cutaneous tuberculosis, tubercular tenosynovitis, inoculation tuberculosis, occupational exposure

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