Gastric tuberculosis

Gastric tuberculosis is the rarest form of tuberculosis infection among all organ systems in the human body. Benjamin (1933) was able to collect only 225 cases from the world literature, while Good found only 3 cases of gastric tuberculosis among 7,416 gastric surgeries, indicating that this disease is extremely rare. Although intestinal tuberculosis is quite common in patients with advanced tuberculosis, gastric tuberculosis is so infrequent, and the mechanism remains unclear, possibly related to the bactericidal properties of the stomach and the lack of lymphoid follicles in the gastric wall. The clinical manifestations of tuberculosis are highly variable; some cases are asymptomatic or very mild, some resemble chronic gastritis or gastric cancer, and most resemble peptic ulcer disease, with patients experiencing upper abdominal discomfort or pain, often accompanied by acid reflux and belching, with abdominal pain unrelated to food intake.