Pulmonary Tuberculosis Presenting Acutely as Paraplegia: An Unusual Presentation
A 19-year-old male patient presented with the complaint of acute onset paraplegia since 4 days. He reported to have slept normally at night and noticed that he could not move both his lower limbs when he woke-up the next morning. On examination, he was fully conscious, had a blood pressure of 128/80 mm of Hg, pulse rate of 78 beats/min, respiratory rate of 22/min and a temperature of 98.4°F. A neurological examination revealed flaccid areflexic paraplegia with sensory loss along with bowel and bladder involvement. On respiratory examination, there were occasional expiratory crepitations in the right infrascapular area. The cardiovascular and abdominal examinations were, however, normal. Patient had no history of cough with sputum, fever, night sweats, weight loss, trauma or vaccination in the recent past. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) spine was performed, which revealed a paravertebral abscess extending from T7 to L2 vertebra []. A computed tomography chest revealed bronchiectatic changes in the right lower lobe []. The sputum was positive for acid fast bacilli.