Published online Dec 27, 2014. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v6.i12.248
Revised: May 18, 2014
Accepted: October 28, 2014
Published online: December 27, 2014
Inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT) of the spleen is an uncommon entity with an uncertain aetiology. Inflammatory pseudotumors present diagnostic difficulties because the clinical and radiological findings tend to suggest a malignancy. The symptoms include weight loss, fever, and abdominal pain. Most cases of splenic IPT present solitary relatively large well circumscribed masses on imaging. The diagnosis in the majority of the cases is made after histopathologic study of splenectomy specimens. The IPTs that occur in the spleen and liver are typically associated with Epstein-Barr virus. Thirty-seven percent of all new cases of active tuberculosis infection are extrapulmonary tuberculosis and tuberculous lymphadenitis the most commonly occurring form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. We report the case of an inflammatory pseudotumor of the spleen associated with splenic tuberculous lymphadenitis in a 50-year-old female patient who was preoperatively diagnosed with a malignant spleen tumour based on her history of breast of carcinoma.
Core tip: A rare benign; lesion inflammatory pseudotumours (IPT) are infrequently found in the spleen with only sporadic case reports and short case series reported in the literature. Here we report a case of a spleen IPT associated with splenic tuberculous lymphadenitis in a 50-year-old female patient who was preoperatively diagnosed with a malignant spleen neoplasm.