Medical cure of a brainstem abscess and serial brainstem auditory evoked potentials

Dev Med Child Neurol. 1992 Oct;34(10):911-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1992.tb11389.x.

Abstract

The brainstem abscess of a nine-year-old girl with tetralogy of Fallot was cured after six weeks of parenteral antibiotic therapy, without surgical intervention. Serial studies of brainstem auditory evoked potentials were undertaken until the patient was clinically normal. To the authors' knowledge, this is only the second medically cured case reported in the literature, and it is the first case studied with serial brainstem auditory evoked potentials. If the clinical status allows, medical treatment of a brainstem abscess with appropriate antibiotics could be tried before surgical intervention such as stereotactic aspiration for reducing the mass.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Brain Abscess / drug therapy*
  • Brain Abscess / physiopathology
  • Brain Stem* / drug effects
  • Brain Stem* / physiopathology
  • Child
  • Chloramphenicol / therapeutic use*
  • Drug Therapy, Combination / therapeutic use
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / drug effects*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Reaction Time / drug effects
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Recurrence
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed
  • Vancomycin / therapeutic use*

Substances

  • Chloramphenicol
  • Vancomycin