Intracranial Tuberculoma with Difficult Preoperative Diagnosis

Abstract

Intracranial tuberculoma is a relatively rare tumor in developed countries. A 41-year-old Japanese male with a personal history of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 20 was referred be cause of continuous headache. Computed tomography scan revealed multilocular ring-like enhance ment in the right deep temporal region with massive brain edema. Angiography showed an avascu lar mass with narrowing of the carotid bifurcation. The preoperative diagnosis was glioblastoma. This mass was successfully removed and the histological diagnosis was tuberculoma. This case sug gested that tuberculoma is still one of the differential diagnoses of an enhanced mass lesion even without any active extracranial tuberculous lesion. © 1991, The Japan Neurosurgical Society. All rights reserved.