A Text-book of Diseases of Women

by Charles B. Penrose

Tuberculosis attacks the Fallopian tubes much more frequently than any other part of the genital apparatus. The disease may be associated with tuberculosis of the peritoneum or with tuberculosis of the ovaries and the uterus. As has already been said, tuberculosis of the uterus often originates in the tubes and extends thence to the endometrium.

The tubercular Fallopian tube varies much in appearance according to the nature and stage of the disease. The strictly tubercular lesions may be masked by those of ordinary inflammation. There may be peritoneal adhesions, often very dense and widespread, between the tube and adjacent organs, and the ostium abdominale may be closed, as in non-tubercular salpingitis.

In some cases these simple inflammatory adhesions probably existed before the tubercular infection took place, the tuberculosis occurring in an old diseased tube. In other cases it is probable that the inflammatory adhesions and products occurred as a result of the tuberculosis, which attacked a tube previously healthy. In the latter case such adhesions may be viewed as a conservative process.

The tubercular tube is often very much enlarged from infiltration of its walls and dilatation of its lumen. It may be filled with typical caseous material, and when this is removed the mucous membrane will be found the seat of deep, jagged, ulcerated areas.

If the abdominal ostium is not entirely closed, the cheesy material may project into the abdominal cavity. If the disease has extended to the peritoneal coat, the covering of the tube will be found studded with typical tubercles ([Fig. 152]). Such tuberculosis of the peritoneum may be confined to that covering the tube, or it may extend to the uterus and throughout the abdominal cavity.

In peritoneal tuberculosis that has originated in the tube the lesions are found to be most widespread in the pelvic peritoneum.

Fig. 152.—Tuberculosis of the Fallopian tubes. The disease has extended to the peritoneum, which is covered with tubercles.

In some cases the ostium becomes closed, and the tubes are found distended with pus, forming tubercular pyosalpinx. Such tubes sometimes attain enormous size, containing a quart or more of purulent material.

In less extreme cases than those just described the tubercular area may be limited to a portion of the tube, and gives rise to one or more nodular enlargements ([Fig. 153]). In other cases there is no gross change in the shape or size of the tube, and only a few miliary tubercles are found scattered throughout the mucous membrane.