Abstract
During that last 6 years, 100 children have been treated for brain abscess at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. Of these, 69 abscesses were otogenic. The treatment included aspiration of the abscess (84% of cases) and antibiotic therapy. CT scan as a diagnostic tool was available only for a few cases in the last year. In 16% of the cases the abscess was excised. The overall mortality was 21%. Of the surviving children, 76% recovered totally. Epilepsy as a sequel occurred in 21% of the cases. The fact that mortality continues to be high is attributed to the degree of impairment of consciousness of the children at the time of admission. Early detection and successful treatment of brain abscess in children still remain a clinical challenge.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beller AJ, Sahar A, Praiss I (1973) Brain abscess. Review of 89 cases over a period of 30 years. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 36:757–768
Brok I (1981) Bacteriology of intracranial abscess in children. J Neurosurg 54:484–488
Bhatia R (1983) Brain abscess in children. Indian J Paediatr 50:591–597
Carey ME, Chou SN, French LA (1972) Experience with brain abscesses. J Neurosurg 36:1–9
Chandramukhi A, Hegde AS, Narayana Reddy GN (1980) Anaerobic brain abscess — role of metronidazole in chemotherapy. Neurology (India) 28:213–218
Dharkar SR, Shadangi TN, Vaishya ND, Arora VK, Dharkar RS (1978) Pyogenic brain abscess-experiences with 87 cases. Neurology (India) 26:126
Finegold SM, Rosenblatt JE, Sutter QL, Attebery HR (1972) Scope monograph on anaerobic infections. Upjohn, Kalamazzo, Mich, p 9
Fischer EG (1981) Cerebral abscess in children. Am J Dis Child 135:746–749
Garfield JS (1969) Management of supratentorial intracranial abscess, a review of 200 cases. Br Med J 2:7–11
Garfield JS (1978) Brain abscess and focal suppurative infections. In: Vinker PJ, Bruyn GW (eds) Handbook of clinical neurology, vol 33: Infections of nervous system. North Holland, New York Oxford Amsterdam, p 107
Gregory DH, Messner R, Zinneman HH (1967) Metastatic brain abscesses. Arch Intern Med 119:25
Hoffman HJ, Hendrick B, Hiscox JL (1970) Cerebral abscess in early infancy. J Neurosurg 33:172–177
Heineman HS, Braude AJ, Osterholm JL (1971) Intracranial suppurative disease — early presumptive diagnosis and successful treatment without surgery. JAMA 218:1542–1547
Hirsch JF, Roux FX, Sainte-Rose C, Renier D, Pierre-Kahn A (1983) Brain abscess in childhood. A study of 34 cases treated by puncture and antibiotics. Child's Brain 10:251–265
Ingraham FD, Matson DD (1961) Neurosurgery of infancy and childhood. Thomas, Springfield, Ill, pp 373–382
Ingham HR, Selkon JB, Roxby CM (1977) Bacteriological study of otogenic cerebral abscess — chemotherapeutic role of metronidazole. Br Med J 2:991–993
Joubert MJ, Stephanov S (1977) Computerized tomography and surgical treatment in intracranial suppuration. J Neurosurg 47:73–78
Krayenbühl AH (1967) Abscess of the brain. Clin Neurosurg 14:25–44
Moussa AH, Dawson EH (1978) Computed tomography and the mortality in brain abscess. Surg Neurol 10:301–304
Rosenblum ML, Hoff JT, Norman D, Weinstein PR, Pitts L (1978) Decreased mortality from brain abscess since advent of computerised tomography. J Neurosurg 49:658–669
Rosenblum ML, Hoff JT, Norman D, Edwards MS, Berg BO (1980) Non-operative treatment of brain abscess in selected high-risk patients. J Neurosurg 52:217–225
Raimondi AJ, Matsumoto S, Miller RA (1975) Brain abscess in children with congenital heart disease. J Neurosurg 23:588–595
Rotheram EB, Kessler LA (1979) Use of computerised tomography in nonsurgical management of brain abscess. Arch Neurol 36:25–26
Schuster H, Koos W (1981) Brain abscess in children. In: Schiefer W, Klinger M, Brock M (eds) Advances in neurosurgery, vol 9. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Zimmerman RA, Bilanium LT, Shipkin DM, Gilden DH, Murtagh F (1977) Evolution of cerebral abscess — correlation of clinical features with computed tomography. Neurology (Minneap) 27:14–19
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hegde, A.S., Venkataramana, N.K. & Das, B.S. Brain abscess in children. Child's Nerv Syst 2, 90–92 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00286227
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00286227