Brain abscess incidence and microbial etiology in Turkey: a nationwide cross-sectional study

- OBJECTIVE: Brain abscess, a lo-calized purulent central nervous system infection, arises from a variety of microorganisms. Expedit-ed diagnosis and formulation of effective treat-ment strategies are crucial for mitigating mortality risks in patients with brain abscesses. A nuanced understanding of potential microbial agents is pivotal for the development of empirical antibiot-ic therapies. This study aimed to explore the inci-dence and microbial etiology of brain abscesses. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study is a nationwide cross-sectional analysis of patients diagnosed with brain abscesses in Turkey, em-ploying the ICD 10 diagnosis code from Janu-ary 1, 2015, to December 31, 2021. Data pertain-ing to age, sex, comorbidities, and microorgan-isms isolated from central nervous system sam-ples were meticulously recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: This study included 11,536 patients di-agnosed with brain abscesses. The incidence fluc-tuated between 0.98 and 3.68 during the review de-crease post-2017, with a notable increase in male patients during time. Diabetes constituted 56.5% of the patients. The predominant isolated pathogens were Staphylococcus (37.6%), Streptococci (13.3%), and Klebsiella spp. (7.8%), Escherichia coli (6.4%), and Candida species (6.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of brain ab-scesses is decreasing in Turkey. Although staphylococci remain the most isolated agents, the frequent occurrence of Gram-negative bac-teria and Candida species warrants consider-ation during empirical antibiotic selection.