[A study of the risk factors for relapse in pulmonary tuberculosis patients and the results of the re-treatment].

The percentage of relapses among the global TB incidence in Romania increased from 7.7% in 1990 to 13.1% in 1999. The study group included 648 cases with relapsing lung tuberculosis, registered in the second semester, 1997. In more than half of the cases (54.9%) the relapse occurred in the 5 years following the healing of the previous episode. The percentage of 65.5% smear positives represents an increase compared to the first episode (61.7%) and illustrates the severity of these cases. From the first to the second episode, there was an increase of the percentage of "unemployed" and "retreated". Associated diseases were: COPD (10.6%), peptic ulcer (10%) and chronic hepatitis (9.6%). We found high percentages for drinking habits (46.9%) and smoking (41.5%). The re-treatment resulted in only 49% healing, compared to 75.7% at the first episode. This calls for an improvement of initial chemotherapy as well as re-treatment (introducing DOTS).