Nonsurgical resolution of a brain-stem abscess. Case report.

A case of solitary mesencephalic abscess in a 13-year-old boy is presented. The computerized tomography and clinical pictures, indicating a Weber syndrome and obstructive hydrocephalus, resolved totally 20 days after implantation of a ventriculoatrial shunt and treatment with intravenous chloramphenicol and penicillin. This is the fifth reported case of survival in a patient with a brain-stem abscess, and the first in which this outcome has been achieved without surgical drainage of the abscess.