Tanioka Daisuke, Abe Takumi, Ikeda Hisato, Kushima Miki
Department of Neurosurgery, Showa University School of Medicine, 1-5-8 Hatanodai, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
No Shinkei Geka. 2005 Sep;33(9):919-23.
We report a case of cerebellar tuberculoma presenting with headache, without any specific data. A 22-year-old male had headache for recent three months. Because of detection of the tubercle bacillus in his sputum, he was suspected the pulmonary tuberculosis and the tuberculous meningitis. On admission the cerebrospinal fluid revealed no abnormal data and the tubercle bacillus was not detected in the culture. We started medication for the tuberculosis. MRI demonstrated a mass lesion at the right cerebellum, suggesting the presence of a tuberculoma. He underwent total removal of the tumor via the supracerebellar route. Histological examination revealed tuberculoma when there are no abnormal data. The intracranial tuberculoma may be confused with an intracranial neoplasm. It is important to make an overall evaluation to diagnose tuberculosis; for instance, compromised high age, HIV, and the type of steroid administered, will increase intracranial tuberculoma. In this report, we describe a cerebellar tuberculoma without any abnormal data, suggesting that intracranial tuberculoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of any intracranial mass lesion.