[CT of the base of the skull in bacterial meningitis (author's transl)].

CT examinations of 42 cases of bacterial meningitis revealed in 38, 1% of the cases relevant inflammatory processes at the base of the skull which were of significant importance for a transmitted infection. Such infections were: Sinusitis frontalis, ethmoidalis, maxillaris and sphenoidalis, mastoiditis or petrositis, suppurating mucocele, impression fracture, and an intracranially penetrated foreign body. Excepting the identification of fine fractures, conventional x-ray films were diagnostically superior. Hence, especially in the acute stages, special projections can be omitted, if CT is effected in the region of the osseous base of the skull. CT performed in inflammatory diseases of the brain must include the base of the skull, since this will yield reliable pointers to an original focus of the inflammation requiring appropriate treatment and elimination.