Tuberculoma of the pons

A case of a pontine tuberculoma in a 12-year-old male from Somalia is prese nted. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging, performed in Abu Dhabi 1 month be fore admission in Germany revealed a tumorous lesion in the pens with surro unding edema; a presumptive diagnosis of a pontine glioma was made. Chest r adiograph disclosed a pulmonary infiltrate with cavitation, as well as hila r and left mediastinal lymphadenopathy, suggestive of active tuberculosis. Tuberculostatic therapy led to an improvement of the patient's clinical sta tus and a significant reduction in the size of the pontine tuberculoma, Int racranial tuberculomas rarely are seen in industrialized countries. They sh ould, however, be considered as an important part of the differential diagn osis of intracranial space-occupying lesions. In most cases, as in this pat ient, conservative therapy provides good or excellent results. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc, All rights reserved.