Parotid Tuberculosis as the Presenting Manifestation of Disseminated Disease in an Otherwise Asymptomatic HIV Patient.

Parotid tuberculosis is not widely described in the literature. Even though a rare presentation of a commonly occurring disease, it is still missed as a differential diagnosis and often mistaken for neoplasms, eventually leading to unnecessary surgical resections. Here, we present a case of a young lady with a slowly growing unilateral parotid mass along with matted, non-tender cervical, axillary, and inguinal lymphadenopathy, who was incidentally found to have HIV with a cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) lymphocyte count of 38 per microliter. Fine needle aspiration revealed acid-fast bacilli and CT thorax showed features of pulmonary tuberculosis, thus suggesting a disseminated tuberculosis infection. She was started on anti-tubercular and anti-retroviral therapy, after which there was a symptomatic improvement.