Thyroid actinomycosis: a case report

Actinomycosis is nowadays a not very common festered chronic infection. Cervicofacial actinomycosis is the most frequent clinical form, and it is due in most cases to Actinomyces israelii. Thyroid actinomycosis has been scarcely described in the literature. The lesions, that are characterized to be notably indurated and to contain multiple abscesses that drain to the surface through sinus tracts, frequently simulate other infective clinical entities and often neoplasms, therefore the diagnosis is delayed in the time. From a case of thyroid actinomycosis diagnosed and treated in our service which was initial diagnosed as a thyroid neoplasm, we revise the cases described in the literature and we make a point in the difficulty to arrive to the diagnosis of this entity.