Chapter 13 - Neurobrucellosis

Abstract

This chapter discusses manifestation, clinical features, and classification of neurobrucellosis. Brucellosis can produce a terrific impact on the nervous system, which may lead to permanent disability if not diagnosed and treated promptly at an early stage. Brucella melitensis is the most frequently encountered organism in patients with neurobrucellosis, being the most invasive and highly pathogenic. There have been several attempts by many authors to categorize neurobrucellosis from the clinical features point of view. Other authors have divided the single diagnostic clinical entity of neurobrucellosis into subgroups. Rogers divided paraplegia caused by brucellosis into four groups according to the anatomical site, clinical forms, level of lesions, evolution and duration of paraplegia or quadriplegia, and its association with other localizations such as meningitis, encephalitis, or cranial nerve involvement. There are certainly groups of patients in whom the disease could be localized to one site of the nervous system, such as the meninges, spine or nerve roots, and other peripheral nerves. However, a mixture of clinical features denoting multiple sites of the nervous system being affected may exist in the same patient.