Iranian Journal of Microbiology (May 2016)
Anaerobic brain abscess
Abstract
Background: Brain abscess remains a potentially fatal central nervous system (CNS) disease, especially in developing countries. Anaerobic abscess is difficult to diagnose because of cumbersome procedures associated with the isolation of anaerobes. Materials and Methods: This is a hospital-based retrospective microbiological analysis of 430 brain abscess materials (purulent aspirates and/or tissue), for anaerobic organisms, that were received between 1987-2014, by the Microbiology Laboratory in our Institute. Results: Culture showed growth of bacteria116/430(27%) of the cases of which anaerobes were isolated in 48/116(41.1%) of the cases. Peptostreptococcus (51.4 %), was the predominant organism isolated in four cases followed by Bacteroides and Peptococcus species. Conclusion :Early diagnosis and det ction of these organisms would help in the appropriate management of these patients.