Exogenous lipoid pneumonia (ELP) is the result of a foreign body-type reaction to the presence of lipid material within the lung parenchyma. It is caused by inhalation or aspiration of oil-based substances, such as mineral, vegetable and animal oil.1 Mineral oils are either temporally absorbed by alveolar macrophages, to be released again when the phagocytes die or they remain free within the alveoli, leading to the formation of giant cells and fibrosis around large mass oils, several months after they reach the lung parenchyma.2 We report a case of ELP complicated by mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in an elderly male patient with an oesophageal disorder and chronic digestion of paraffin oil.
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