Central nervous system infections

Despite advances in therapeutics, there remains a very significant mortality and morbidity with central nervous system infections. It appears that further prevention of death and lessening of sequelae must be the task of the physician who can accomplish earlier and more accurate diagnoses, initiate appropriate therapy, and provide attention to the details of the supportive care. The authors do not emphasize specific therapies but stress principles and clinical anatomical correlations, which may aid the physician in the earlier suspicion of central nervous system infection and its differential diagnosis, in hopes of quickening the pace of therapeutic intervention (60 references).