Cerebral mucormycosis masquerading as brain metastasis from lung cancer: A case report

We report a rare case of concurrent pulmonary and cerebral mucormycosis initially misdiagnosed as a metastatic tumor. A 66-year-old man with a complaint of progressive right-sided limb weakness for 3 days. Head MRI showed a left parietal occupying lesion with severe edema, and a chest CT scan showed...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yuankun Cai, Qian Wu, Xiaohui Wu, Zheng Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-01-01
Series:Heliyon
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240584402204049X
Description
Summary:We report a rare case of concurrent pulmonary and cerebral mucormycosis initially misdiagnosed as a metastatic tumor. A 66-year-old man with a complaint of progressive right-sided limb weakness for 3 days. Head MRI showed a left parietal occupying lesion with severe edema, and a chest CT scan showed a parenchymal mass with speculation and pleural invasion in his left lung. The patient was initially diagnosed with brain metastases from lung cancer and underwent a craniotomy. Many fungal hyphae were found in the left parietal lesion, and the final pathological diagnosis of intracranial mucormycosis. After craniotomy and an entire course of treatment with liposomal amphotericin B, the patient was completely cured of both intracranial and pulmonary occupying lesions. We hope that this case experience will help expand neurosurgeons' differential diagnosis and treatment of such diseases.
ISSN:2405-8440