Tuberculous pleural effusion in child

In the period from 1990 until 1999, authors treated eleven children with tuberculous pleural effusion. Four of these children were aged 3 years and seven were in aged from 5 to 12 years. There were ten males and one female. Ten children were BCG vaccinated, and eight of them had a visable scare. Family contact with a BK positive person (grandfather, grandmother ) was established in three children, environmental contact in tree patients and in five children contact was not known. Among frequent clinical findings, fever was found in ten patients, cough in six, dispnoea in five, and chest pain in four children. Pleural effusions were evident on the right side in seven children, and on the left side in four children. In ten children in whom we performed pleural punction, the fluide was sterile. BK positive pleural effusion was found in one patient, the same patient had also positive gastric aspirate. Bronchoscopy was performed in eight children. Granulomas were found in three cases. Microscopic positive sediment was found in two children.