The authors of this review article present the case of a patient with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis who was treated with a combination of drug therapy and surgery, and they review the role of surgery in this setting, under the following headings:

• Epidemiology of drug-resistant tuberculosis

• Treatment

• History of surgery in treatment of tuberculosis

• Surgery and drug-resistant tuberculosis: indications and rationale; pre-operative work-up; surgical procedure; data from case series; data from cohort studies

They identified 26 case series and cohort studies, which together showed that surgical resection is beneficial in the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis. However, the results might not be applicable in all settings because investigations were observational and typically included patients with less severe disease, and all surgeries were done at specialised centres.  They comment that well designed studies are needed to establish the efficacy of surgery in this setting.