Brain abscess and congenital heart disease.

The clinical features and management of 18 patients with congenital heart disease and a brain abscess are reviewed. Except for one patient all had cyanosis. All abscesses were large, containing at least 50-60 ml of pus, and mostly unilocular. Bilocular and multilocular abscesses were also encountered. The organisms cultured from the pus had little relation to the mortality. Tapping may be the final investigation, and is also the treatment of choice. The high mortality (50%) is attributed to the delay in referral of these patients to a neurosurgical unit.