The symphysis pubis is a non-synovialamphiarthrodial joint situated at the confluence of the two pubic bones, consisting of an intrapubic fibrocartilagenous disk sandwiched between thin layers of hyaline cartilage. In 1924 Beer coined the term osteitis pubis to describe an idiopathic postoperative complication of suprapubic prostatectomy characterized by severe pelvic pain, a wide-based waddling gait, and bony destruction of the margins of the pubic symphysis. Since that time, numerous cases have been reported in association with pregnancy, trauma, rheumatologic disorders, athletic exertion, and infection, as well as after urological and gynecological operations.Osteomyelitis of the symphysis pubis almost invariably is preceded by urological or gynecological surgery, often when a technical complication has occurred. Risk factors other than surgery are traumas, microtraumas (especially in athletes), pelvic malignancies, and intravenous drug use.In pubic osteomyelitis, causative organisms differed according to risk factors. Staphylococcus aureus was the major cause among athletes, pseudomonas aeruginosa among intravenous drug users, and infections among patients with pelvic malignancies were usually polymicrobial,involving fecal flora. Tuberculosis of the pubis is very uncommon and no cases have been reported in the past 5 decades.This article presents a case of tuberculosis osteomyelitis of the pubis in an otherwise healthy athlete.
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