Factors associated with the presence of thoracic fibrocavitary sequelae in patients with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis from Hospital Universitario de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia

Objective: To determine the variables associated with the development of thoracic fibrocavitary sequelae in patients with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis in Santander. Methods: A retrospective cohort of 141 patients previously diagnosed with tuberculosis, recruited using non-probability consecutive sampling at pneumology consultations (Hospital Universitario de Santander). A descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed with all the variables collected from the medical records. Results: Sixty-six percent of the patients were males, with an average age of 52+/-16.91 years, evidencing an average time span of 69 months from the moment of the infection to the moment they were recruited, and a history of tobacco use of 46%. Sixty-eight percent stated they had cough and a fibrobronchoscopy was performed in 41%. Eighty-nine percent exhibited some type of sequelae, classified as follows: Parenchymal thoracic 88%, pleural 30%, respiratory tract 45%, mediastinal 38% and vascular 5%. The variables associated with the presence of a sequela were the age of the patient; a period of time exceeding 17 months since the moment of the tuberculosis diagnosis; the age of diagnosis; the diagnostic confirmation of tuberculosis by fibrobronchoscopy and symptoms such as dyspnea, cyanosis and cough. Discussion: This study establishes the incidence of tuberculosis sequelae in 88.65% of the subjects with tuberculosis treated in Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia. It is the first study in the region evaluating the factors associated with the development of tuberculosis sequelae, in which the use of fibrobronchoscopies as a diagnostic method was found to be an important factor.