Tuberculous brain abscess: report of a case with computed tomography correlation.

A 27 year-old Vietnamese male immigrant to Canada developed a hemispheric cerebellar abscess. The patient presented at the hospital with osteomyelitis of the 5th finger of the left hand. He complained of lassitude, weight loss, and early morning headache, nausea, and vomiting, and he developed a left facial weakness. A computed tomographic scan demonstrated the distinctive appearance of an abscess of the left cerebellar hemisphere. Aspiration of the abscess afforded immediate relief of obstructive hydrocephalus and provided pus from which Mycobacterium tuberculosis was grown, thus permitting specific antituberculous chemotherapy. The cerebrospinal fluid obtained at the time of operation was sterile. The patient recovered fully. A primary site of infection was not conclusively identified.