Chronic brain abscess secondary to a retained wooden foreign body: diagnostic and management dilemmas.

A four-year-old child presented with recent onset generalized tonic clonic seizures. She was operated for a suspected intracranial tuberculoma and was found to harbor an intra-parenchymal retained wooden foreign body with a chronic abscess. The foreign body had entered the brain parenchyma after a minor head injury, sustained three years earlier. She was asymptomatic for the intervening three years. The initial diagnosis was missed by several physicians. A retained wooden fragment via a transtemporal apparently closed head injury is an extremely rare event. The present study reveals the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges and stresses the importance of high degree of suspicion to diagnose retained intracranial foreign bodies and the need for early surgical exploration, to avoid chronic and potentially life threatening neurological complications.