Congenital Heart Disease with Septal Defects in which Paradoxical Brain Abscess Causes Death

The presence of septal defects in congenital heart disease makes for a direct shunting of particulate matter from the venous to the arterial side of the circulation. In reviewing the literature we have been surprised to find that this phenomenon, with resultant brain abscess, has been second only to bacterial endocarditis as a septic cause of death. The subject deserves attention from the view-point of early diagnosis and cure, since the reported mortality has been almost 100 per cent.