Successful Surgical Treatment of an Infrarenal Abdominal Pseudoaneurysm Caused by Tuberculosis: Report of a Case

A 76-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for investigation of an apparent abdominal aortic aneurysm detected during treatment for epididymitis. A chest X-ray showed miliary shadows in the bilateral lung fields strongly suggestive of tuberculosis. The diameter of the aneurysm increased, and examinations showed impending rupture of a pseudoaneurysm. However, a definitive disease pathogenesis was not obtained before surgery. We performed a subemergency operation, which revealed an infrarenal abdominal pseudoaneurysm caused by tuberculosis. The pseudoaneurysm appeared to have resulted from direct extension of tuberculous lymphadenitis to the aortic wall, which ruptured. We review 24 other cases of tuberculous aortic aneurysms surgically treated in Japan before 2004.