42 patients with cerebral abscesses were treated from 1979 until the end of the first six months of 1987 at the Neurosurgical Department of the Faculty of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey. The present study aims at studying these patients to determine the factors affecting on prognosis. The patients were studied for the duration of complaints, pre-operational condition, the location of the abscesses, the microorganisms responsible for them, and the techniques of operation applied, by taking their sex and age into consideration. All of the cases were treated operatively. Of these, 18 were treated by excision and 24 were applied drainage, whose percentage was 43 and 57 respectively, 85% of the cases were under 60 years of age. The rate of mortality of the cases with cerebral abscesses was 19%. This rate was between 15% and 37.5% in the cases of several age groups whose complaints lasted less than two months. This rate reached 100% with a sudden increase in the cases who had a duration of complaints over four months. The rate of mortality was 6.2% in the cases with a clear conscious and cooperative ability while it had a significant increase in the patients in pre-coma or coma to go up to 50% and 75% respectively. No correlation was observed between the rate of mortality and the age of the patients but the location and extension of the abscesses had an effect on this rate. The abscesses, covering more than one lobe, had a mortality rate of 31.2%, while the ones with parietal location caused no single death. To conclude, we can say, based on this study, that the age and sex of patients and the operative technique have no effect on the rate of mortality while it is obviously influenced by the duration of the complaints and the pre-operative condition. Consequently, we would like to stress up on early diagnosis and treatment of such cases.