Glucocorticoids in Central Nervous System Bacterial Infection

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Abstract
DESPITE ADVANCES in diagnosis and management, bacterial infections of the nervous system continue to have substantial morbidity and mortality.1Recent studies on the pathogenesis of neural tissue injury in these infections found that inflammatory and toxic factors, produced by the host immune system in response to the invading pathogen, are responsible for much of the damage.2,3This host response is accentuated at the time bactericidal antibiotic treatment is initiated, organisms are lysed, and there is abrupt release of inflammatory cell wall components, lipopolysaccharides, and outer membrane vesicles from the organisms.