Spinal Tuberculosis: Diagnosis and Management

The spinal column is involved in less than 1% of all cases of tuberculosis (TB). Spinal TB is a very dangerous type of skeletal TB as it can be associated with neurologic deficit due to compression of adjacent neural structures and significant spinal deformity. Therefore, early diagnosis and management of spinal TB has special importance in preventing these serious complications. In order to extract current trends in diagnosis and medical or surgical treatment of spinal TB we performed a narrative review with analysis of all the articles available for us which were published between 1990 and 2011. Althoug h the development of more accurate imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging and advanced surgical techniques have made the early diagnosis and management of spinal TB much easier, these are still very challenging topics. In this review we aim to discuss the diagnosis and management of spinal TB based on studies with acceptable design, clearly explained results and justifiable conclusions.

[Tectal lipoma: a case report and review of literature]

Intracranial lipomas are rare benign neoplasms that comprise 1% of all primary brain tumors. Generally, occur in midline structure and usually identified incidentally on CT scans or in autopsies. The incidence of intracranial lipomas is about 0.08 to 0.46% on autopsies. These benign lesions are slow-growing, usually asymptomatic and rarely require surgery. We report a 20 years old male who complained of headache since two years ago. On CT examination, a quadrigeminal cistern lipoma without any pressure effect on neural structures demonstrated. His headache remitted with conservative measures. Here, we have a review on the literature and explain CT scan and MRI findings. According to the literature and present case, it seems that direct surgical excision of tumor is not justified in the majority of cases and symptoms of patients greatly respond to conservative measures and, at most, in cases of hydrocephalus, CSF shunting relieves their symptoms