There have been infrequent reports of isolated central nervous system blastomycosis. We report a case of intracranial epidural abscess secondary to Blastomyces dermatitidis in a patient residing in Rhode Island with a history of remote travel to an endemic area. The clinical, radiographic, and pathologic features of this unique case are reviewed.

The epidural approach is currently an option in treating pain and in anesthesia. According to the literature [1-4], a rare complication of this technique involves the infection of deep tissues around the catheter or the formation of an epidural abscess (the true incidences of these problems remain uncertain), estimated to have developed in approximately 0.2-1.2% of every 10,000 hospital admissi...

Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is an uncommon condition and its most important predisposing factor is diabetes mellitus. Although the treatment of choice is prompt surgical abscess evacuation, followed by antibiotic therapy, successful conservative treatment of SEA has been reported in some cases. We describe a SEA case in a 23-year old white woman with diabetes for 14 years, who was successfull...

Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is a rare clinical entity associated with a high morbidity and mortality. It usually spans 3-4 levels. The literature contains very few reports of extensive or panspinal epidural abscesses and hence there is no consensus on management of such cases. We describe a case of 56 years old male presenting with a posteriorly located SEA extending from the Foramen Magnum t...

We report a case of epidural extension of pleural empyema with cord compression and neurologic deficit. Surgical decompression was required and emergency bilateral laminectomy was performed with removal of abscess and granulation tissue. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus grew in cultures of pleural and epidural specimens and appropriate intravenous antibiotics were started. In spite o...

Interbody fusion for stabilization of the cervical spine after osteomyelitic destruction of the body of C5 vertebra is reported in a patient with quadriplegia and sphincter disturbances secondary to an epidural abscess. The successful union of the bone graft along with complete neurological recovery after anterior decompression and evacuation of the epidural mass seem to justify the procedure.

Streptococcus intermedius is a human pathogen with a propensity for abscess formation. We report a high-quality draft genome sequence of S. intermedius strain BA1, an isolate from a human epidural abscess. This sequence provides insight into the biology of S. intermedius and will aid investigations of pathogenicity.