Calvarial tuberculosis in a preschool-aged child: An uncommon entity

Abstract

Calvarial tuberculosis is a rare manifestation of tuberculosis, especially in children under five years of age. We report a two-and-a-half-year-old male child who presented to the Nilratan Sircar Medical College, Kolkata, India, in 2015 with frontoparietal fluctuant swelling of three months’ duration. He had also had chronic sinus discharge from the left lower eyelid over the previous six months. Computed tomography of the head revealed a frontal swelling along with erosion of both the outer and inner plates of the left frontal bone. Fine needle aspiration of the pus indicated the presence of acid-fast bacilli. Unfortunately, no primary focus of tuberculosis could be established. The patient improved after one year of antitubercular therapy without requiring any surgical intervention and with no sign of subsequent disease recurrence.