[Specific features of rhino-sinusogenic brain abscesses in adults and children]

Analysis of observations of 49 patients with rhinosinusogenic brain abscesses revealed differences in their development between adults and children. This pathology occurs in adults more frequently than in children, particularly young children. In adults, brain abscesses usually develop as a result of chronic frontal- or polysinusitis, while in children they typically occur after maxillary sinusitis and in early age children also after acute suppuration in the nasal cavity. For adults, the contact pathway of infection is characteristic, whereas for children, the hematogenic-metastatic pathway is typical. Adults show single abscesses while children show both single, multiple and multichamber abscesses accompanied by separation of cranial sutures, thinning of calvaria, and protrusion and tension of the cranial fontanel. In children, abscesses may grow very large. In adults, the hypertensive syndrome is very distinct, while in children, the hydrocephalic-hypertensive syndrome comes to the foreground. In children, infectious-toxic symptoms are more significant. In adults, focal neurological symptoms become more serious than in children in whom they are also more labile.