Tuberculoma of brain in cyanotic heart disease

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Mohapatra, Rabindra N.

Affiliations: Ispat General Hospital, RSP, Rourkela, Orissa, India

Note: [] Correspondence: Rabindra N. Mohapatra, M.Ch., C- 91, Sec-19, Rourkela-769005, Orissa, India. Tel.: +91 661 2646086 / +91 9437353607; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Patients with cyanotic heart disease frequently suffer from brain abscesses. While most of such patients are treated conservatively, different modalities of surgical treatments are adapted depending upon the clinical situation. Though pulmonary tuberculosis is reported to be 2.5 times more common in children suffering from congenital heart disease than the general population of the same community, it is not known whether tuberculoma of brain is more common amongst them. Very few cases have been published reporting tuberculoma brain in patients with cyanotic heart disease. We report a case of cyanotic heart disease, which was treated as a case of bacterial endocarditis and later on suspected to have brain abscess until the patient deteriorated and became comatose requiring craniotomy. Tissue diagnosis of the lesion was tuberculoma. This observation necessitates the need for consideration of tuberculoma of brain in patients suffering from cyanotic heart diseases with neurological signs. Tuberculoma brain is medically treatable with good prognosis, if diagnosed early.

Keywords: Cyanotic heart disease, tuberculoma, brain

Journal: Journal of Pediatric Neurology, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 259-263, 2007