Background: We report on an extremely rare case of urachal tuberculosis that was confirmed using a polymerase chain reaction test of paraffin-embedded material.
Methods/results: A 62-year-old man presented with pollakiuria. With a diagnosis of urachal abscess, the patient underwent en bloc resection of the cystic mass. A bacterial culture test of the content showed no organism. The histopathologic findings suggested urachal tuberculosis. The AMPLICOR polymerase chain reaction test by using paraffin-embedded sections revealed the existence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the resected tissue. The only positive finding in systemic screening examinations for tuberculosis was old tuberculosis scars in the upper right lung. It was supposed that hematogeneous spreading from the lung lesion may result in urachal tuberculosis after a long latent period.
Conclusions: Although urachal tuberculosis is an extremely rare condition, tuberculosis must always be kept in mind when observing any infectious diseases.