[Intracranial abscesses].

The authors report on their experiences in treating 21 patients with intracranial abscesses admitted to the Neurosurgical Department of the Teaching Hospital in Kosice in the years 1982-1987. Suppurative inflammation of the middle ear or of the paranasal sinuses was the most frequent source of infection. Six patients died, five of them in association with the intracranial infection, one female patient died of hemorrhagic necrosis of the pancreas. Two of the survivors suffer from epilepsy, in further three motor derangement of mild or medium degree has persisted on the contralateral side. Therapeutic measures which proved effective were trepanopuncture with pus aspiration, also repeatedly performed if necessary, and administration of antibiotics according to sensitivity of the microorganisms involved. In chronic abscesses with a solid capsule and in intracranial suppuration due to foreign bodies the whole focus as well as the capsule have to be extirpated.