Abscesses

An abscess is a pocket of pus. You can get an abscess almost anywhere in your body. When an area becomes infected, your body's immune system tries to fight it. White blood cells go to the infected area, collect within the damaged tissue and cause inflammation. During this process, pus forms. Pus is the buildup of fluid, living and dead white blood cells, dead tissue and bacteria or other foreign substances.

Bacteria, viruses, parasites and swallowed objects can all lead to abscesses. Skin abscesses are easy to detect. They are red, raised and painful. Abscesses inside your body may not be obvious and can damage organs, including the brain, lungs and others. Treatments include drainage and antibiotics.

Abscess on Wikipedia

An '''abscess''' is a collection of pus collected in a cavity formed by the tissue on the basis of an infection process (usually caused by bacterium or parasites) or other foreign materials (e.g. bullet wounds). It is a immune system of the tissue to prevent the spread of infectious materials to the other parts of the body. The organisms or foreign materials that gain access to a part of tissue kill the local cell (biology)s, release toxins and trigger an inflammation by drawing huge amounts of white blood cells to the area and increasing the regional blood flow. So, pus is a collection of local dead tissue cells, white blood cells, infecting organisms or foreign material and toxins released by both organisms and blood cells. The final structure of the abscess is an abscess wall that is formed by the adjacent healthy cells in an attempt to build a barrier around the pus that limits the infected material from neighbouring structures. The cardinal symptoms and signs of any kind of inflammatory process are redness, heat, swelling and pain. Abscesses may occur in any kind of solid tissue but most frequently on skin surface (where they may be superficial pustules or deep skin abscesses), in the lungs, brain abscess, kidneys and tonsils. Major complications are spreading of the abscess material to adjacent or remote tissues and extensive regional tissue death (gangrene). Abscesses in most parts of the body rarely heal themselves, so prompt medical attention is indicated at the first suspicion of an abscess. The treatment of first choice is the surgery drainage of the abscess. It is important to note that antibiotic therapy alone without surgical drainage of the abscess is seldom effective. However, in critical areas where surgery presents a high risk (such as the brain), surgery may be delayed or used as a last resort. The drainage ...   [ Read More ]

External Resources

Abscess - Offers a biography, discography and links for the metal band.

Abscess - News, band history, member biographies, lyrics, pictures, MP3s, discography, and interviews for the gore band.

Relapse Records - Also home to Release Entertainment. These black-clad bongsmiths release hardcore grindcore, death metal, noise, experimental, and other extreme music. Artists include Neurosis, Brutal Truth, Amorphis, Trial of the Bow, Amber Asylum, Merzbow, Abscess, Mindrot, Flux, and Mortician.

Emergency Medinice - An introduction to spinal epidural abscess, the clinical features, work up, treatment, medicine and follow up.

Yahoo Health - A detailed look at epidural abscess including treatment, causes, incidence, risk factors, symptoms, prevention and testing.

Emergency Medicine - An in depth look at brain abscess, beginning with an introduction. Authored by William Ernoehazy, Jr, MD, FACEP.

Virtual Hospital: Infectious Diseases of the Central Nervous System - Image of cerebral abscess.

|VhiHealth-e - An article written by Richard Robinson about brain abscess. Offers a definition, description, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.

eMedicine: Abscess - Consumer health resource center providing an overview of abscesses and their causes, symptoms and treatment.

Infectious Diseases of the Central Nervous System: Parenchymal Infections - Medical information on cerebral abscesses, syphilis, parasitic infections, fungal infections, viral infections, and CJD.

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