Sagittal, T1-weighted, gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance image of the brain and base of the skull showing sphenoid sinusitis, extradural empyema and frontal lobe abscess.
As Lu and colleagues point out in this issue (pp. 501–9), despite new antibiotics and high-resolution imaging techniques, cerebral abscess remains a potentially fatal infection of the central nervous system. Our cover picture shows a frontal lobe abscess in association with infection of the sphenoid sinus. Local spread of infection from a paranasal sinus or middle ear is well known as a common cause of cerebral abscess, but the epidemiology is changing. An increasing proportion now occur in immunocompromised patients, or follow head trauma or neurosurgery.