Feculent meningitis: polymicrobial meningitis in colorectal surgery.

Polymicrobial anaerobic meningitis is a rare event secondary to a contiguous infection in the head or neck. Anaerobic meningitis due to a meningo-intestinal fistula is a rare event with only two cases reported in the literature. We describe a new case of adult polymicrobial anaerobic meningitis after colorectal surgery and radiotherapy and review the previous two cases.

[Cerebral abscess as a complication of chronic otitis media]. / Absceso cerebral como complicación de una otitis media crónica.

A case is reported of chronic otitis media and cholesteatoma in an adult patient with behavioral disorders who developed a pyogenic brain abscess. Initially, clinical management focused on the otogenic disease in view of the patient's symptoms and medical history. Finally, less easily recognized discriminating signs and symptoms, and the results of imaging studies were emphasized. These data confirmed the clinical diagnosis of pyogenic brain abscess secondary to cholesteatoma. The case illustrates how one of the most severe infective complications related with cholesteatoma may appear and its a remainder to clinicians to take this possibility into consideration.

Immunorestorative effect of thymostimulin on surgery immunodepression: experimental model.

The purpose of the present study is to ascertain the immunorestorative effect of two different drugs on immunodepression induced by small bowel surgical resection in an experimental model. The potential immunorestorative effect has been measured by the ability of the drug to avoid the delay of skin allograft rejection induced by surgery and the inhibition of CD4/CD8 index changes induced by surgery in spleen tissue. 120 Wistar-Furth rats (age 12-16 weeks) anesthetized with a single intramuscular dose of ketamine (25 mg), diazepine (4 mg) and atropine (0.1 mg) were allotted to two main groups. One group received a skin graft (SG) from Fisher 344 rats and was treated with placebo, Inmunoferón (AM-3 polypeptidic drug) or TP-1 (thymostimulin) before the experiment (groups I, II, III) or treated with placebo, Inmunoferón or TP-1 before the experiment and underwent enterectomy and anastomosis (groups IV, V, VI). On the 2nd, 5th and 8th postoperative days, biopsies of the SG were taken and the signs of rejection were microscopically studied and evaluated by a pathologist as zero, incipient, moderate or massive. The other group was treated similarly, but the animals did not receive a SG and were splenectomized 5 days later. CD4 and CD8 lymphocyte subpopulations were identified by means of immunoperoxidase technique and monoclonal antibodies. Thymostimulin is able to stimulate the presence of SG rejection signs on the 2nd postoperative day in nonenterectomized animals and on the 8th postoperative day in nonenterectomized animals and on the 8th postoperative day in enterectomized rats and is able to avoid the decrease of the CD4/CD8 index in spleen tissue after surgical immunodepression.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)