Shoulder tuberculous arthropathy

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Shoulder tuberculous arthropathy​ is an uncommon extrapulmonary manifestation of tuberculosis involving the humeral head and/or the glenoid.

Epidemiology

Tuberculosis of the shoulder joint is uncommon skeletal manifestation with an incidence of 0.9-1.7% . There is male predominance with common involvement of the left shoulder joint, unlike the pulmonary apical lesion which is more common on the right side .

Clinical presentation

Caries variants depend on the presentation tuberculosis of shoulder joint :

  • type I: caries sicca
    • classic dry form
    • patients present with marked wasting of the shoulder and painful restriction of all movement
  • type II: caries exudata
    • ​florid type
    • patients present with swelling of the joint, cold abscess and a sinus tract
  • type III: caries mobile
    • ​patients present with characteristic restriction of active movements of the shoulder but passive movements of varying degrees are present