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Cavernous Sinus Syndrome

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Fungal Infections of the Central Nervous System

Abstract

The progress in the understanding of central nervous system (CNS) and skull base infections, is tremendous and it is more so in the case of fungal infections of CNS and skull base, especially cavernous sinus (CS) fungal infection. Available diagnostic tools and appropriate management protocol are continuously changing towards the better management of the fungal infection of CS. CS fungal lesions usually spread from surrounding the paranasal sinuses (PNS) and from the orbit. So understanding the pathology and pathologenesis is vital in the management of such dangerous infections. Management of CS fungal infection is not straightforward and rather complicated due to the underlying immunodeficiency in most of the patients. Treatment is mainly surgical with antifungal drug therapy. For ease of discussion in this chapter, brief anatomy of CS, etiopathogenesis of CS fungal infection, clinical presentation, radiological findings, and management with some special condition/complications of CS fungal infection including prevention will be discussed briefly.

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Abbreviations

CNS:

Central nervous system

CS:

Cavernous sinus

CST:

Cavernous sinus thrombosis

CT:

Computed tomography

CTA:

Computed tomographic angiogram

DSA:

Digital subtraction angiography

EC-IC:

Extracranial-intracranial

FLAIR:

Fluid attenuated inversion recovery

ICA:

Internal carotid artery

MCA:

Middle cerebral artery

MRA:

Magnetic resonance angiogram

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

PNS:

Paranasal sinuses

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Chowdhury, F.H., Haque, M.R., Hossain, M.Z., Sarker, M.H. (2019). Cavernous Sinus Syndrome. In: Turgut, M., Challa, S., Akhaddar, A. (eds) Fungal Infections of the Central Nervous System. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06088-6_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06088-6_24

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