Bacterial Infections of the Central Nervous System: Pathogenesis, Pathophysiology and Clinical Aspects

The central nervous system may be infected by a wide variety of bacteria, often as part of what is at first a bacteraemia but may later become a septicaemia, and sometimes as a result of extension from adjacent tissues. This chapter considers the pathophysiology of CNS bacterial infections and some of the host responses to these infections. In some cases an inadequate immune response may allow chronic infection to develop. Under other circumstances, notably meningitis, it is the host response that gives rise to tissue injury.