A Case of Brain Abscess Caused by Nocardia farcinica

Abstract

Nocardia infections are rarely encountered in healthy individuals causing opportunistic infections in people that for any reason have suppressed immune system. Central nervous system involvement usually develops secondary to lung infection and often appears in the form of cerebral abscess. The fact that it especially appears in immunocompromised patients, have more than one abscess,late diagnosis and delayed treatment increases the mortality rate. Furthermore, there are significant differences in susceptibilities to antibiotics between Nocardia species so, when they are isolated as a factor, maintaining without determining suscep-tibility patterns of started empirical antibiotic therapy leads to treatment failure. In this article we present a case of multifocal brain abscess.of a patient who takes immunosuppressive treatment from one year because of the systemic lupus erythematosus and two months before started anti-tuberculosis treatment because the pulmonary tuberculosis and is fully recovered by surgery and long-term co-trimoxazole treatment due to N. farcinica.

Keywords

• brain abscess
• opportunistic infections
• nocardia farcinica