Tuberculous subcutaneous abscesses developing during chemotherapy for pulmonary tuberculosis.

A 32-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus developed military tuberculosis. Several subcutaneous abscesses infected with a strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis susceptible to all antituberculosis drugs occurred successively during initial 1-4 months of regular antituberculosis therapy. The lung and skin lesions disappeared after continuous treatment. We emphasize that emergence of tuberculous skin lesions may occur during treatment but this does not necessarily indicate treatment failure.