Treatment Outcomes and Factors Impacting Unsuccessful Outcome Among Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

Tuberculosis remains a significant public health challenge. The study aimed to identify factors influencing treatment outcomes for extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB). From January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2018, a retrospective study was carried out at the District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. There were 107 EPTB patients in all, aged 12-90 years, with 39.3% of them being female and 60.7% of them being male. With the assent of the patient, demographic information, smoking habits, and co-morbidities were noted. Logistic regression was used in SPSS 23.0 to analyse the data. The treatment success rate was 58.9% among new and relapsed EPTB patients and 24.3% among new smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients, with an overall success rate of 83.2%. The likelihood of unsuccessful treatment outcomes was higher among patients aged 36-45 years (AOR = 1.17 95% CL: .416-7.37) and patients with comorbidities (AOR = 2.66; 95% CL: .895-7.94). The patients having symptoms like sweating (AOR = 0.335; 95%CL .130-.863) and cough (AOR = 3.03; 95% CL: 1.35-6.76) were factors associated with the unsuccessful treatment. This study reveals that the ratio of unsuccessful treatment outcomes is still high. Unsuccessful treatment outcomes are due to patient’s expiry, defaulter patients, treatment failure, and patient transfer. To reduce treatment interruptions, effective tracing strategies for patients who have been transferred and didn’t complete treatment due to being defaulters should be devised and deployed. A follow-up plan should be tailored to each patient.

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