Disseminated tuberculosis with massive gastrointestinal bleeding after liver transplantation

Tuberculosis is a serious opportunistic infection in transplant recipients. We report the case of a 41 year-old woman with disseminated tuberculosis that caused massive lower gastrointestinal bleeding following orthotopic liver transplantation. The patient presented with fever of unknown origin and without any clinical signs 13 months after orthotopic liver transplantation. Liver biopsy performed for increasing alanine aminotransferase and bilirubin levels showed a granuloma, following which Mycobacterium (M) tuberculosis was determined in sputum. In the first week of antituberculous treatment, massive lower gastrointestinal bleeding occured. Angiography showed extravasation from the proximal and mid jejunum as the source of bleeding. The patient underwent surgery to control the bleeding and segmentel resection of the jejunum was performed. M. tuberculosis was also determined in the histopathologic specimens of jejunum, liver and mesenteric lymph nodes and culture of the specimens. Although bleeding stopped after surgery, the patient died from septicemia and multi-organ failure due to disseminated tuberculosis after three weeks of therapy. This is the first report of disseminated tuberculosis with massive gastrointestinal bleeding after orthotopic liver transplantation