Brain abscess burr hole aspiration in children with congenital heart disease in low facility centers: case series

This is a prospective cross-sectional study on brain abscess burr hole aspiration in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) performed from January 2018 to March 2019. All patients were operated on through a burr hole, and then received intravenous antibiotics for 6 weeks and orally for 2 weeks either empirically or according to the results of abscess culture, if positive. The follow-up of cranial computed tomography or brain magnetic resonance image with contrast was obtained after 2 months (post-operatively) to assess the effectiveness of the procedure and to look for any residual or recurrent abscesses. Data were collected in a designed data collection sheet and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences-20. Thirteen patients were found to satisfy inclusion criteria. The most common presenting symptoms were fever (n = 11/13, 84.6%), vomiting (n = 7/13, 53.8%), headache (n = 6/13, 46.2%), convulsions (n = 6/13, 46.2%), focal weakness (n = 3/13, 23.1%), and impaired level of consciousness (n = 1/13, 7.7%). No bacterial growth was detected in two-thirds of the cases (69.2%), while the culture was positive in the remaining one-third (30.8%). The follow-up images showed complete resolution of the abscesses except in one case (n = 1/13, 7.7%), which required a second session of aspiration. One patient died (n = 1/13, 7.7%) on the 19th post-operative day due to severe pneumonia. Aspiration of brain abscess in children with CHD through a burr hole is a safe and effective procedure in terms of operative time, duration of anaesthesia and postoperative complications.