Ultrasound-guided aspiration of intracranial abscess in a tertiary health institution in South-eastern Nigeria: Facing the many challenges of a resource-poor setting

Introduction: Intracranial abscesses are usually life-threatening. Minimally invasive procedures are effective especially if deep seated, located in dominant or eloquent cortex. Image guidance especially, ultrasound guidance, could suffice in resource poor setting. Absence of appropriate probes, dedicated theatre ultrasonographic setup, and technical know-how may be a drawback. We present our experience with four cases managed recently in our institution. Highlighting our limitation and efforts made to overcome this. Case Series: Four consecutives cases, a 2-month-old baby, a 15-year-old female, a 67-year-old man, and a 2-month-old baby with a right deep frontoparietal, occipital, right fronto-parieto-occipital, and frontoparietal intracranial abscesses respectively, had ultrasound-guided aspiration of lesion using adapted transducer, together with good collaboration with the radiology department of the hospital. Procedure was successful. Conclusion: Ultrasound guidance in resource poor setting remains a good option with due inter-disciplinary collaboration.