Cerebral Abscess and Paradoxic Embolism Associated With Congenital Heart Disease

Of the 25,620 autopsies performed during the past twenty-one and a half years by the department of pathology of the Los Angeles County Hospital, in 160 congenital defects of the heart and the great vessels were observed; thus in this large series the percentage incidence was 0.62 as compared with that of 1.29 for the series of 75 cases at Johns Hopkins reported by Leech 1 and that of 5.24 for the 1,950 autopsies conducted at Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, reported by Gibson and Clinton. 2 Of these 160 cases, there was a paradoxic embolism in 1 and cerebral abscess was present in 6. In 4 of the 7 cases the intracranial complication was suspected before death. The literature has been reviewed to January 1941, and the pertinent data have been tabulated and discussed. REPORT OF CASES Case1.—M. B., an 18 year old girl, had had an attack of