[The role of surgery in tuberculosis in children]. / Place de la chirurgie dans la tuberculose de l'enfant.

Despite increasingly rigorous preventive measures which have limited the number of cases in France, the number of children undergoing surgery for tuberculosis has remained unchanged. Over the last ten years we operated on 40 children in our pediatric unit. In 10 cases, surgery was indicated for diagnosis, in 19 cases surgery was required in an emergency situation during treatment and in 11 the operation was performed at the stage of sequellae. The type of surgery depended on the clinical situation. Thoracoscopy was used for surgical diagnosis and to empty caseous nodes in the lateral tracheal chain but was generally impossible at the sequellae stage.