[Indication for surgery in a patient with tuberculoma accompanied by chronic myeloid leukemia]

Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) tend to suffer from non-reactive form of tuberculosis (TB) and often dissemination and death are the consequence when the blast crisis occurs. In those patients the eradication of pulmonary TB is essential to prolong their life. In a 58-year-old man with a tuberculoma and CML, right upper lobectomy was performed and was discharged 2 weeks later uneventfully. He succumbed to blast crisis 59 months after the onset of CML with no autopsy finding of recurrence nor dissemination of TB. The lobectomy in this patient was effective in preventing dissemination of TB. Controversy exists as to the indication for surgery but this case illustrates the effectiveness of surgery preventing the dissemination of TB in patients accompanying CML.