Mycobacterial infection after liver transplantation.

Tuberculosis occurred in 5 (1.2%) of 462 liver transplant recipients. De novo infection was assumed in 4 patients and a recurrent infection in 1. The clinical courses varied, from asymptomatic open lung tuberculosis to disseminated disease with cerebral tuberculoma and convulsions. Four patients survived with anti-tuberculous triple-drug therapy. Very few cases of tuberculosis after liver transplantation have been reported (4 patients in the medical literature and 5 patients in this paper). However, the incidence, course of infection, and outcome seem to be similar to those of tuberculosis in renal transplant recipients, approximately 150 cases of which are known.