Turkish Neurosurgery 2011 , Vol 21 , Num 3
Cerebral Tuberculoma Mimicking High Grade Glial Tumor
Hikmet TURAN SUSLU1, Mustafa BOZBUGA2, Cicek BAYINDIR3
1M.H. Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Kartal Education and Research Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey
2Trakya University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, Edirne, Turkey
3Istanbul University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neuropathology, Istanbul, Turkey
DOI : 10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.2947-10.0 Tuberculosis has been an important public health problem in both developing and develop nations. Tuberculosis of the central nervous system is rare. Tuberculosis meningitis and tuberculoma are the two most important manifestations of tuberculosis of the CNS. Intracranial tuberculomas may be solitary or multiple. Solitary tuberculomas may be indistinguishable from cranial abscess or primary brain tumor. It is necessary to rule out tuberculoma in patients with intracranial mass lesions. We present a case of tuberculoma mimicking a high grade glial tumor on magnetic resonance imaging and clinical presentation. A 30-year-old woman presented with one-month history of epilepsy. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed a left occipital peripheral ring-enhanced lesion with central necrosis. There was a strong suspicion of glial tumor. The lesion was totally excised with left occipital craniotomy. Histological examination of mass revealed a tuberculoma. The patient was treated with antituberculous chemotherapy. Keywords : Tuberculoma, Glial tumor, Antituberculoma therapy
Corresponding author : Hikmet Turan Suslu, hikmets1972@yahoo.com