Esteroides e infección en trauma craneoencefálico / Infectious complications in steroid recipients for cns trauma

Estudio descriptivo retrospectivo que busca valorar la frecuencia de infección en trauma craneoencefálico que fue manejado con esteroides. Se recolectó una muestra de 153 pacientes y de las historias clínicas se extrajeron las variables demográficas (edad, género, mortalidad) y las características clínicas (infección, uso de esteroides). Los resultados no evidenciaron aumento de la frecuencia de infecciones en los pacientes con trauma craneoencefálico que recibieron manejo con esteroides...

This descriptive retrospective study sought to assess the frequency of infectious complications in steroid recipients for central nervous system (CNS) trauma. A sample of 153 patients was collected and demographic variables (age, gender, mortality) and clinical features (infection, steroid use) were obtained from medical records. Results did not evidence an increase in the frequency of infectious complications in patients treated with steroids for CNS trauma...

Effects of psychological stress and fluoxetine on development of oral candidiasis in rats.

Psychological stress has been found to suppress cell-mediated immune responses that are important for limiting the proliferation of Candida albicans. Fluoxetine has been observed to reduce negative consequences of stress on the immune system in experimental and clinical models, but there are no data on its effects on oral candidiasis. We designed experiments to evaluate the effects of fluoxetine on the development of oral candidiasis in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to a chronic auditory stressor. Animals were submitted to surgical hyposalivation in order to facilitate the establishment and persistence of C. albicans infection. Stress application and treatment with drugs (placebo or fluoxetine) were initiated 7 days before C. albicans inoculation and lasted until the end of the experiments, on day 15 postinoculation. Establishment of C. albicans infection was evaluated on days 2 and 15 after inoculation. Tissue injury was determined by the quantification of the number and type (normal or abnormal) of papillae on the dorsal tongue per microscopic field. A semiquantitative scale was devised to assess the degree of colonization of the epithelium by fungal hyphae. Our results showed that stress exacerbates C. albicans infection in the tongues of rats. Significant increases in Candida counts, the percentage of the tongue's surface covered with clinical lesions, the percentage of abnormal papillae, and the colonization of the epithelium by hyphae were found in stressed rats compared to the nonstressed ones. Treatment with fluoxetine significantly reversed these adverse effects of stress. Besides the psychopharmacological properties of fluoxetine against stress, it has consequences for Candida infection.

Abscesos encefálicos

Se presentan 103 casos de abscesos cerebrales atendidos en nuestro Servicio en los últimos 25 años. 64 casos correspondieron a hombres y 39 a mujeres. Se dividieron en dos grupos: a uno de ellos se le dio tratamiento médico y quirurgico convencional; los pacientes del segundo grupo fueron tratados médicamente, al igual que el primer grupo, pero el tratamiento quirúrgico ademas de la escisión capsular incluyó la colocación de un sistema de irrigación continua con antibióticos en la cavidad del absceso. Se describen los resultados