Recent advances in the management of pulmonary tuberculoma with focus on the use of tubeless video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery

Pulmonary tuberculoma are benign solitary pulmonary nodules representing up to 25% of all resected solitary pulmonary nodules. However, the differentiation between pulmonary tuberculoma and lung cancer, as well as between active tuberculoma and inactive tuberculoma remains a clinical challenge. The present review summarizes the recent advances in the management of pulmonary tuberculoma, including radiological findings, the response to anti-tuberculosis treatment and surgical treatments. Application of the novel tubeless video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) technique in both the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculoma has been found to be safe and feasible and leads to less surgical trauma, which results in reduced length of hospitalization and better post-operative quality of life.