Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2025; 13(18): 101612
Published online Jun 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i18.101612
Abdominal tuberculosis with pancreatic head involvement mimicking pancreatic malignancy in a young man: A case report
Lei Ma, Kun-Peng Wang, Chong Jin
Lei Ma, Kun-Peng Wang, Chong Jin, Department of General Surgery, Taizhou Central hospital (Taizhou University Hospital), Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Ma L and Wang KP designed this study, reviewed the literature, and wrote the manuscript; Ma L and Jin C collected the patient’s clinical data; Ma L, Wang KP, and Jin C revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient and legal guardian for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to report.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chong Jin, MS, Professor, Department of General Surgery, Taizhou Central Hospital (Taizhou University Hospital), No. 999 Donghai Avenue, Jiaojiang District, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang Province, China. 13757689065@163.com
Received: September 20, 2024
Revised: December 15, 2024
Accepted: January 23, 2025
Published online: June 26, 2025
Processing time: 159 Days and 21.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Pancreatic tuberculosis (PTB) is a rare and challenging condition, particularly in immunocompetent individuals. It commonly presents with nonspecific symptoms that resemble those of pancreatic malignancies, complicating the diagnosis based solely on clinical and imaging findings. Therefore, a thorough diagnostic approach, including histopathological confirmation, is crucial for accurate identification. Clinicians should maintain a high level of suspicion for PTB, especially in areas with a high prevalence of tuberculosis, and include it in the differential diagnosis of pancreatic lesions to avoid delays in treatment.