Aspergillus fumigatus cerebral abscess and sphenoid sinus osteomyelitis in an immunocompetent patient following previous nasopharyngeal carcinoma and radiotherapy

Abstract

Abstract Cerebral mycosis is extremely rare in immunocompetent patients. A 61-year-old male presented with a 3-month history of worsening left-sided headaches and 3-week history of left-sided upper lip paraesthesia. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an enhancing lesion in the left temporal lobe. Histopathology of this lesion revealed what initially resembled a zygomycete but additional cultures obtained on further surgical debridement revealed the infection to be Aspergillus fumigatus with associated sphenoid sinus osteomyelitis. We postulate that the presentation was related to the patient’s previous radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only report of such a case.