Epidemiological characteristics and some risk factors of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in Larache, Morocco

INTRODUCTION: this work aims to bring out the epidemiological characteristics of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in the province of Larache (Morocco) and to investigate the effect of gender and age on its localization and treatment outcome. METHODS: it consists in a retrospective study based on 2962 cases of EPTB, reported during the period 2000 to 2012. RESULTS: the mean age was 31.74 ± 18.83 years, with a median age of 26. Males are more affected by this form of tuberculosis, with a male to female sex-ratio of 1,15. The EPTB affects particularly the young population whose age is between 15 and 34 years. The pleural and lymph node localizations are the most common with 45% and 28% respectively. The statistical analysis reveals that younger patients are preferentially affected by lymph node tuberculosis whereas oldest ones are more likely to suffer from urogenital and pericardial tuberculosis. Regarding the treatment outcome, we demonstrated that age is significantly associated with the treatment outcome and that deaths occur preferentially in the oldest patients. Finally, we found out a significant association between males and pleural ETB localization, and between females and lymph node and peritoneo-itestinal ETB localizations. CONCLUSION: special attention must be paid to the mentioned most vulnerable categories of EPTB patients.