Tuberculoma of the spleen: A rare but important clinical entity

Tuberculoma of the spleen has been an extremely rare entity during the last decades in the Western world. We describe a case in a young, HIV-negative woman who was evaluated for fever of unknown origin. The workup was initial ly negative, and she was treated successfully with steroids and nonsteroida l anti-inflammatory analgesics. Recurrence of the fever and an abnormal CT of the abdomen lead to act exploratory laparotomy, which revealed a subcaps ular caseous material containing splenic abscess. The very few cases report ed in the literature, and the increasing incidence of extrapulmonary tuberc ulosis due to the alarming numbers of immunodeficient patients that a surge on may encounter are also discussed.