Giant Cerebral Tuberculoma Masquerading as Malignant Brain Tumor - A Report of Two Cases

Prity Agrawal; Subash Phuyal; Rajesh Panth; Pratyush Shrestha; Ritesh Lamsal

doi:10.7759/cureus.10546

Giant Cerebral Tuberculoma Masquerading as Malignant Brain Tumor - A Report of Two Cases

Cureus. 2020 Sep 20;12(9):e10546. doi: 10.7759/cureus.10546.

Authors

Prity Agrawal¹, Subash Phuyal², Rajesh Panth³, Pratyush Shrestha⁴, Ritesh Lamsal⁵

Affiliations

¹ Radiology, Upendra Devkota Memorial National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences, Kathmandu, NPL.
² Neuroimaging and Interventional Neuroradiology, Upendra Devkota Memorial National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences, Kathmandu, NPL.
³ Pathology, Upendra Devkota Memorial National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences, Kathmandu, NPL.
⁴ Neurosurgery, Upendra Devkota Memorial National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences, Kathmandu, NPL.
⁵ Anaesthesiology, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu, NPL.

Abstract

Giant cerebral tuberculoma is an uncommon but serious form of tuberculosis. We report two patients who had a single, large lesion on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Both patients underwent neurosurgery for the excision of the mass lesion as neuroimaging findings were suggestive of a brain tumor. Tuberculoma was later diagnosed on histopathological examination. We want to highlight that cerebral tuberculomas can mimic malignant brain tumors, as the clinical, laboratory, and radiologic features of cerebral tuberculomas are nonspecific.

Keywords: brain tumor; magnetic resonance imaging; tuberculoma; tuberculosis.

Publication types

Case Reports