Study design: Case report.
Objective: To report a rare lesion of intramedullary cervical tuberculoma.
Setting: Department of Neurosurgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, The People's Republic of China.
Case report: A 15-year-old boy presented with pain in the neck and shoulder. Examination showed mild left hemiplegia and pinprink hyperalgesia on the left side up to C3 level. Chest X-ray and CT scan showed patch and dot lesions indicating old tuberculous lesions and MRI showed a ring-enhancing intramedullary lesion at C3/4 level. Tuberculoma resection and antituberculous therapy was given. There was satisfactory recovery clinically.
Conclusion: Intramedullary cervical tuberculoma is a rare, coexisting systemic tuberculosis and MRI scan helps in obtaining a correct diagnosis; combining surgery with anti-tuberculosis therapy is the treatment of choice.