Solitary pancreatic tuberculous abscess mimicking pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma: a case report

• Main Authors: Bie Ping, He Zhenping, Liu Quanda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2003-01-01
• Series: BMC Gastroenterology
• Online Access: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-230X/3/1

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The incidence of pancreatic tuberculosis is extremely rare, and it frequently misdiagnosed as pancreatic neoplasms. The nonsurgical diagnosis of this entity continues to be a challenge.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 33 year old male with six-month history of intermittent right epigastric vague pain and weight lost had found a solitary pancreatic cystic mass and diagnosed as pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma. The chest X-ray film and physical examination revealed no abnormalities. Abdominal ultrasound (US) examination showed an irregular hypoechoic lesion of 6.6 cm × 4.4 cm in the head of pancreas, and color Doppler flow imaging did not demonstrate blood stream in the mass. The attempts to obtain pathological evidence of the lesion by US-guided percutaneous fine needle aspiration failed, an exploratory laparotomy and incisional biopsy revealed a caseous abscess of the head of pancreas without typical changes of tuberculous granuloma, but acid-fast stain was positive.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Pancreatic tuberculosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of focal pancreatic lesions, especially for young people in developing countries.</p>