[Experimental brain abscess evolution : brain edema and neuropathologic correlation (author's transl)]

In the right hemisphere of rabbits an inoculation of a mixture of agar and bouillon with Staphylococcus aureus was performed to examine brain inflammation, which always led to brain abscess with a spreading inflammatory edema. The size of the acute abcess and the concomitant edema are dependant from the degree of pathogenecity, less from the inoculated quantity of bacteria. In the acute phase, the edema had the tendency to spread towards the ventricular system. When the intracranial pressure exceeds a certain limit by the spreading edema, the mortality increased significantly. With the incipient encapsulation from the 5th day on the accumulation of extracellular fluid decreased but remained recognisable around the encapsulated abscess as long as bacteria maintain a chronic inflammation.