[Cerebral abscess. Analysis of 41 cases over a 10-year period]

Although treatment with antibiotics and computerized tomography (CT) of the brain have considerably improved the prognosis of intracranial purulent collections, brain abscess remains a lethal disease in about one out of ten cases. We present a series of 41 brain abscesses diagnosed between 1976 and 1986 and treated surgically. The clinical signs were more often neurological than infectious. Among the exploratory methods, only CT has a real diagnostic value. Treatment is both medical and surgical. Simple aspiration seems to have the triple advantage of producing prompt and effective decompression of brain tissue, enabling the pathogen(s) to be isolated so that the appropriate antibiotic can be chosen, and being a repeatable and little traumatic procedure with less sequelae than surgical excision.