Document Type

Report

Department

Neurosurgery; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Abstract

Background: Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is an immune disorder that affects phagocytes. It is characterized by recurrent or persistent bacterial and fungal infections. Reports of tuberculosis (TB) in patients with CGD are rare. In developing countries, where TB is endemic, possibility of other chronic infections is often overlooked by physicians.
Case description: We report the case of a 4-year-old boy who had recurrent respiratory infections and episodes of headache. He was put on antituberculosis (ATT) drugs without microbiological or pathological evidence 2 months prior to presentation. The child did not improve and was brought to our hospital where a computed tomography scan revealed multiple cerebral abscesses. These abscesses were excised. The microbiological specimen was determined to be positive for Aspergillus fumigatus. His tracheal aspirate was positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis polymerase chain reaction assay. Further work-up confirmed the diagnosis of CGD in the child.
Conclusion: This report describes the course of the patient's illness in order to highlight the challenges associated with the management of these infections. We also aim to stress on the importance of pathological diagnosis before starting a therapy.

Comments

Issue and pagination are not provided by the author/publisher

Publication (Name of Journal)

Surgical Neurology International

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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