Lung Cancer Forum - TB or cystic lesion ?

Cancer > Lung Cancer Forum > TB or cystic lesion ?

Q: TB or cystic lesion ?

asked by: billsims on September 6th, 2009

New User

About 10 days ago my grandson (age 11) started complaning about arm and chest pain, we took him to local hospital where they ddiagnosed him as having pneumonia,but there was a Lesion on lung so they sent him to UAB childrens hospital.
When he was admitted one doctor said that he had TB another said that it was a staff infection and another said that it wasn't either one. They did a skin test for TB which came back negative.
One doctor wants to treat it as TB ,another as staff, another wants to treat it as a cystic Lesion. No doctor will agree.... one wants to operate another wants to do a biopsy while the rest wants to treat him with antibiotics. He has been at UAB for 7 days and still no one in agreement. What should I do?

Replies(1)

Dr. Robert Wascher , MD

replied on September 19th, 2009

If this child's immune system is functioning normally, it is extremely unlikely that he has an active TB infection of his lung if he has had one or more completely negative TB skin tests.

If he has a mass in his lung, it may be an appropriate first step to perform a fine needle aspiration (needle biopsy) of this lesion, so that an accurate diagnosis can be obtained prior to considering surgical intervention.

SIncerely/ Robert A. Wascher, MD, FACS

http://doctorwascher.com

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