Brain abscess related to metal fragments 47 years after head injury. Case report.

The authors report a case of symptomatic brain abscess in a 51-year-old man who presented with personality changes and generalized seizures. He had survived a grenade explosion injury during the Korean War 47 years previously. Computerized tomography scanning revealed multiple conglomerate rim-enhancing lesions and metallic foreign bodies in the right frontal lobe. The mass was totally removed and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from microbial cultures. Retained foreign bodies in the brain, whether bone or metal, should be removed at the time of injury if at all possible. If this cannot be accomplished, patients with such retained foreign bodies should be carefully monitored for life.