In two-thirds of cases, people have symptoms for as long as two weeks before they are diagnosed.
A brain abscess can grow very quickly, typically becoming fully formed within about two weeks. Your doctor will begin treatment immediately after you are diagnosed. Prompt medical attention is the key to relieving your symptoms more quickly and minimizing damage to your long-term health.
The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and nervous system problems. Such problems may be confusion, disorientation, speech or walking difficulties, change in mental status, or arm and leg weakness on one side. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, and seizures.
A cerebral abscess is an infection in your brain. It is a medical emergency that requires treatment right away. Symptoms can include headache, fever, changes in consciousness, confusion, neck stiffness, vomiting, seizures, weakness, trouble moving, and changes in vision.
Brain abscess passes through 4 stages: early cerebritis, late cerebritis, early capsule, and late capsule. During early cerebritis, nonenhanced CT scans may demonstrate normal findings or may show only poorly marginated subcortical hypodense areas.
Left untreated, a brain abscess may lead to neurological damage, and ultimately death. The overall mortality rate from a brain abscess is 10 percent, but if the abscess ruptures into the ventricle (the fluid chambers in the brain), the mortality rate goes up to as much as 25 to 40 percent.
If untreated, a brain abscess is almost always deadly. With treatment, the death rate is about 10% to 30%. The earlier treatment is received, the better. Some people may have long-term nervous system problems after a brain abscess or surgery.
However, in some cases, germs can get through these defences and infect the brain. Although the exact location of the original infection cannot always be identified, the most common sources are infections in the skull, the bloodstream or after a head injury.
Abscess occurs most commonly in the frontal lobe but may occur in any location. Location is closely associated with source. Otogenic abscess occurs almost exclusively in the temporal lobe and cerebellum, while abscess associated with sinus infection is predominantly frontal.
Between 1,500 and 2,500 cases occur each year in the United States. Brain abscesses are most likely to affect adult men aged under 30 years. Among children, they most commonly develop in those aged 4–7 years.
For instance, diffusion-weighted (DWI) MRI has been suggested to differentiate brain abscess from primary, cystic, or necrotic tumors (20), based on the limited free motion of water molecules in the viscous milieu in the necrotic center of abscess cavity.
The most common symptoms are a headache and fever, and some people may also have nausea and/or vomiting. Because these can be symptoms of many illnesses, a brain abscess can be hard to detect at first. In two-thirds of cases, people have symptoms for as long as two weeks before they are diagnosed.
Symptoms of encephalitis vary depending on the affected area of the brain, but often include headache, sensitivity to light, stiff neck, mental confusion and seizures. It's important to see a doctor promptly if you are experiencing symptoms, which may not seem troubling at the time.
Headache is the presenting symptom; it is often dull, generalized, and in 50% of patients accompanied by fever. Signs and symptoms of elevated intracranial pressure and cerebral edema develop gradually. Focal neurologic deficits are present in 50% of patients and include paresis, paralysis, aphasia, and seizures.
Intracranial abscesses are uncommon, serious, life-threatening infections. They include brain abscess and subdural or extradural empyema and are classified according to the anatomical location or the etiologic agent. The term brain abscess is used in this article to represent all types of intracranial abscesses.
More than 75% of people with a brain abscess have a dull, achy headache. For many people this is the only symptom. The pain usually is limited to the side of the brain where the abscess is, and the pain usually becomes worse until the abscess is treated. Aspirin and other pain medication do not relieve the pain.
You can reduce the risk of developing a brain abscess by getting treated for infections or health problems that can cause them. Some people, including those with certain heart disorders, may receive antibiotics before dental or other procedures to help reduce the risk of infection.
Once an abscess has formed, surgical excision or drainage combined with prolonged antibiotics (usually 4-8 wk) remains the treatment of choice.
The risk of a brain abscess is a complication of odontogenic infection that is rarely considered by physicians and little spoken of, yet treating dental infections may avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. We report a case of 7-year-old boy with a brain abscess secondary to a dental infection.
Treatment of Brain Abscess
Initial empiric antibiotics include one of the following: Cefotaxime 2 g IV every 4 hours. Ceftriaxone 2 g IV every 12 hours.
In spite of successful treatment of the infection, long-term cognitive problems or mental fatigue may ensue. The reason for this dysfunction may be a continuing inflammatory state or damage to brain tissue caused by the abscess.
The cumulative incidences of cancer among siblings of patients with brain abscess were 10% and 12% among siblings of the comparison cohort. Discussion Brain abscess was associated with substantially increased risk of cancer during the first 10 years after diagnosis.