In an endemic country like India tuberculosis is a common clinical entity. It can affect almost any organ of our body. For sites like a parotid gland, a rare site of extrapulmonary tuberculosis one would consider the possibility of abscess and not tuberculosis as its occurrence in the parotid region is extremely rare. It becomes even more unlikely to consider tuberculosis if repeated investigations turn out to benegative. A 44-year-old male patient from Mumbai, came with complain of right side parotid swelling with discharging sinuses since 5 months. Repeated culture and AFB smear turned out to be negative. There was no response to antibiotics. Biopsy from parotid swelling was taken and sent for HPE study, TB PCR, Gene expert. TBPCR and GeneXpert were suggestive of tuberculosis. Antitubercular therapy was started soon after to which patient responded well and unnecessary surgery was avoided. Since tuberculosis is a common infection in our country, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of parotid swelling or abscess.
