Dermoid cyst with dermal sinus tract complicated with spinal subdural abscess.

Spinal subdural abscess caused by spread of infection with the dermal sinus tract is rare in children. This article reports on a 1-year-old male with prolonged fever, progressive paraplegia, and bowel and bladder dysfunction resulting from a spinal subdural abscess secondary to an infected spinal dermoid cyst with a dermal sinus tract. This is the youngest patient to be reported having this condition. Surgical intervention was performed to find a tumor that had capsule and keratinlike contents. Culture of the abscess was positive for Escherichia coli and Bacteroides vulgatus. He received 6 weeks of parenteral antibiotic treatment. This patient illustrates the importance of urgent radiologic examination, immediate surgical resection, and appropriate antibiotic therapy for spinal subdural abscess.

An intramedullary dermoid cyst abscess due to Brucella abortus biotype 3 at T11-L2 spinal levels.

A 17-year-old boy was admitted to hospital with a history of backache, weakness of the lower extremities and fever. While the diagnosis of brucellosis was made his clinical course worsened. Acute medulla spinalis mass effect and signs of meningitis predominated. It was shown that he had a dermoid cyst infected with Brucella abortus biotype 3 which was the same strain growing in his blood cultures.

Particles resembling oncornaviruses. Spontaneous release from cultured meningioma cells.

A cell culture from thoracic cord meningioma tissue obtained at surgery was maintained for several passages in cell culture. These cells spontaneously released particles with an RNA of high-molecular weight (90S to 95S) and a density similar to that of type C oncornaviruses. The implications of these results and similar findings by others are discussed.