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Case Reports
. 2022 Oct 6;10(28):10260-10265.
doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i28.10260.

Solitary splenic tuberculosis: A case report

Hong-Wei Guo  1 , Xiu-Qing Liu  1 , Yan-Li Cheng  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Solitary splenic tuberculosis: A case report

Hong-Wei Guo et al. World J Clin Cases. .

Abstract

Background: Solitary splenic tuberculosis (TB) is unusual and rarely reported. Whether splenic TB is best treated surgically is still controversial. We describe a 73-year-old man with solitary splenic TB and no extrapulmonary TB.

Case summary: We report the case of a 73-year-old man with solitary splenic TB who complained of emaciation and fatigue. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) images suggested a splenic space-occupying lesion. We then performed a CT-guided splenic biopsy. The postoperative pathological examination revealed splenic TB. The patient took quadruple anti-TB medication. After 1 year, the patient recovered his normal weight and had no feeling of fatigue, and the splenic lesion had shrunk significantly.

Conclusion: If patients receive combined, appropriate, regular, full-time anti-TB treatment, solitary splenic TB may be cured.

Keywords: Anti-tuberculosis medicine; Case report; Computed tomography; Computed tomography-guided spleen biopsy; Infectious diseases; Pathological diagnosis; Solitary splenic tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Abdominal computed tomography of a large circular lesion in the spleen. A: Plain computed tomography (CT) showed a large circular lesion of mixed density (4.4 cm × 5.5 cm) in the spleen, and the CT value was 19-25 HU; B: Contrast-enhanced CT indicated the lesion and the CT value was 36 HU; C: Portal phase CT showed the lesion and the CT value was 48 HU. There were small patches of low-density liquefaction necrosis in the splenic parenchyma shown in (B) and (C).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pathological analysis of the splenic lesion. A-C: Splenic tuberculosis pathological lesions including (A) granuloma (× 40), (B) multinucleate giant cells (× 40) and (C) acid-fast bacilli (× 40) were identified by hematoxylin and eosin staining and acid-fast staining.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography of the splenic lesion. The lesion had shrunk significantly.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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