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The tuberculoma is a space-occupying lesion encountered frequently by all Indian Neurosurgeons. Some features indicate the possibility of such a lesion. These are: tuberculous disease in the past or contact with a tuberculous patient, a positive Mantoux test, pyrexial onset of the disease and frequent history of seizures. The radiological features are not diagnostic, but the presence of multiple, enhancing lesions on the CT scan in a young patient, strongly suggest tuberculomas. Surgical excision of the lesion is recommended, partial near vital areas, and sometimes, with tuberculomas in areas like the thalamus and brain stem only medical therapy is advisable. Long-term medical treatment is necessary. Towards eradication of the disease all those close to the patient need to be examined for early detection of asymptomatic tuberculosis.

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In the lesser developed countries of Africa and Asia tuberculosis is widely prevalent in all its various forms and still presents a major health problem. It is therefore not surprising that 20 to 25% of brain tumours prove to be tuberculomas so that this condition is not rare as it is in the West. In this department, which has been functioning now for over five years, more than 95 patients have already undergone operative excision of brain tuberculomas. In a histopathological analysis of 452 intracranial spaceoccupying lesions studied over the past eight and a half years at the Neuropathology Unit (Dastur and Iyer, 1961), 102 or 23% were found to be tuberculomas. The great majority of these have conformed to the types described in standard works on neurology and neuropathology (