Brain abscess in children continues to be associated with high rates of neurological impairment and death.

A review of the literature revealed only 18 previously reported cases.

Symptomatic arachnoid cysts of the spine are rare lesions in the pediatric age group. Although most commonly occurring in association with neural tube defects, such as myelomeningocele and diastematomyelia, in some cases the cysts appear in children without spinal anomalies. We describe a 12-month-old girl with lumbar intradural arachnoid cyst with progressive weakness of the lower limbs. There was full recovery after fenestration of the cyst.

Myxopapillary ependymoma of the filum terminale and conus medullaris are relatively common spinal intradural neoplasms in adults, only 8-14% affecting children. We describe a case of a 15-year-old girl with two myxopapillary ependymomas of the filum terminale. Although cases of two such tumours have been described in adults, we have not found any similar paediatric cases in the literature.