Case reports

Snapshot
Infectious diseases
Volume 202 - Issue 5

Pyogenic brain abscess due to Streptococcus anginosus

Authors:  Benjamin Sim and D Ashley R Watson

Med J Aust 2015; 202 (5): 271. || doi: 10.5694/mja14.00083
Published online: 16 March 2015
An organism that is part of normal oral flora is also a well known cause of metastatic abscesses
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A 23-year-old previously healthy Filipina migrant woman presented with confusion and worsening headache.

Magnetic resonance imaging showed a 4.6 × 5.1 cm ring-enhancing lesion in the left thalamus, with extensive surrounding oedema (Figure, A and B).

Microscopy of a biopsy sample showed pus and gram-positive cocci. Cultures grew Streptococcus anginosus (also known as Streptococcus milleri), an organism that is part of normal oral flora and a well known cause of metastatic abscesses.

The patient admitted to undergoing multiple recent tooth extractions (Figure, C). She was treated with 6 weeks of intravenous benzylpenicillin and made a full recovery, with complete abscess resolution on follow-up imaging.

Authors

  • Benjamin Sim MB BS1
  • D Ashley R Watson MB BS, MPH, FRACP2
  • 1. The Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT.
  • 2. Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, ACT.

Correspondence: ashley.watson@act.gov.au

View this article on Wiley Online Library