[Meningitis and encephalitis in the years 1983-1990. Clinical observations]

From 1983 to 1990, at the I Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Silesian Academy of Medicine in Bytom, 995 patients with meningitis and encephalitis were treated; the average age was 17.86 years. After cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examinations the patients were divided into groups. The first group consisted of patients with suppurative meningitis and encephalitis (202-20.30%), the other group were patients with aseptic meningitis (309-31.06%), a separate group consisted of patients with mumps meningitis (484-48.06% cases). In the group with suppurative meningitis and encephalitis etiological agents were isolated (Gram stain smear and/or culture of CSF) in 50.99% of cases. The most common causes of suppurative neuroinfections were: Neisseria meningitides and Streptococcus pneumoniae (in 23.76% cases). The increasing number of bacteriological tests positive results was observed during the analyzed period. The etiology of aseptic inflammation diseases of the central nervous system was defined with the help of serologic blood tests in 10-15%, and serologic confirmation of mumps meningitis was as high as 80% of cases. In the group of purulent neuroinfections, during the 8-year observation, 36 deaths occurred (17.82% of these patients). The observed tendency of the death rate decrease is concerned to be a result of better microbiological diagnostics and the possibility of an early aimed antibiotic therapy.