CASE REPORT   

Minerva Stomatologica 2013 April;62(4 Suppl 1):75-81

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4970.18.03638-5

Copyright © 2013 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Oral tuberculosis: a tongue case report

G. BATTISTA ¹, L. LO RUSSO ¹, A. PADOVANO DI LEVA ¹, C. RUBINI ², M. T. SBERNA ³, R. BOLLERO ³, D. DE SANTIS ⁴, A. D’AGOSTINO ⁴, D. BERTOSSI ³ ✉, L. LO MUZIO ¹

¹ Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy; ² Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Pathologic Anatomy, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy; ³ Department of Dentistry, Vita Salute University San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy; ⁴ Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Full text temporarily not available online. Contact us

The authors report a case of oral tuberculosis in a 38-year-old heavy cigarette smoker man. He showed a painful, non-healing ulcer with indurated borders of the lateral surface of the tongue. No tonsil or lymph node enlargement was also noted. The medical history was not significant for systemic disease. Histopathological examination showed granulomas exhibiting a central caseinating necrotic focus, surrounded by mononuclear cells, epithelioid histiocytes and multi nucleated Langhans giant cells. A mantle of lympocytes and fibrous tissue surrounded the granulomas. Since the morphologic picture oriented for tubercoloid granulomata, a Ziehl-Neelsen staining of the tissue was performed. Chest radiography did not detect any pulmonary or nodal disease. On the bases of these results a diagnosis of oral tuberculosis was established.

KEY WORDS: Oral tuberculosis - Infections - Mycobacteria