Neurological complications and outcomes of bacterial meningitis in children
AIM: To analyze neurological complications and outcomes of bacterial meningitis (BM) in children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty-five patients with BM, aged from 2 months to 12 years, were examined. Bacteriological study, clinical and biochemical blood tests and blood serology and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests as well as serum molecular-genetic study were performed. Neuroimaging methods (neurosonography, computed (X-ray) tomography and brain magnetic resonance imaging) were used. RESULTS AND СONCLUSION: A key role of generalized meningococcal infection in the development of BM in children was confirmed. Brain edema was an early and life-threatening complication of BM. It was found in 9% of the patients with meningococcal infection, 7.3% with pneumococcal meningitis and 3.6% with haemophilus meningitis. Changes in the brain structure were not found in 80% of the patients, in 20%, the residual stage of BM was characterized by cerebral destructive/proliferative or atrophic changes of different severity. The dissociation between clinical and neuroimaging parameters and poor outcomes of BM, related to the complicated premorbid state, concomitant somatic/neurological pathology, BM severity, late laboratory diagnosis and untimely etiotropic antibacterial treatment, were identified in 65.5%.