Neuropathology of fatal varicella
Takashima, S.; Becker, L.E.
Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 103(5): 209-213
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9985 PMID: 582251 Document Number: 142740
Pathological examination of the CNS was carried out in the cases of 32 children who died of varicella. Twelve had acute encephalopathy with fatty degeneration of liver. Eighteen children had underlying disease; two thirds of them had received steroids. Two children had neonatal varicella. Only two brains of the total number of children had demonstrable inclusion bodies, and these were unique cases. One infant brain had focal encephalitis in an area of necrosis around a ventricular catheter, and the other, a case of neonatal varicella, had multiple disseminated necrotic foci. These observations suggest that true encephalitis is a rare event in fatal varicella.