Multicystic cerebral degeneration in neonatal herpes simplex virus encephalitis.

Typical herpetic papulovesicular skin lesions developed in an apparently normal infant at 12 days of age and were followed within 48 hours by signs and symptoms of acute encephalitis. Herpes simplex virus type 2 was cultured from the intact skin vesicles, and a fourfold increase in complement fixation titer to herpes simplex virus type 2 was found over the ensuing 24 days. The infant survived her acute illness, but was left with severe neurologic sequelae manifested as microcephaly with multicystic cerebral degeneration. The short-term and convalescent course is documented by serial, clinical, and EEG examinations, and the nature of the cerebral damage is demonstrated by computerized transaxial tomography.