Bacterial meningitis complicated by cerebral venous thrombosis

Community-acquired bacterial meningitis may be complicated by cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), but this has not systematically been studied.

We evaluated clinical characteristics and outcome of CVT in adults with community-acquired bacterial meningitis in a prospective nationwide cohort study of bacterial meningitis (2006-2018) in the Netherlands.

CVT occurred in 26 of 2220 episodes with bacterial meningitis (1%). The diagnosis of CVT was made on the day of presentation in 15 patients (58%) and during hospital stay in 11 patients after a median of 6 days (IQR 2-7). Sinusitis or otitis was present in 16 of 24 patients (67%). Patients with CVT presented more often in a coma than those without CVT (53 vs. 18%; P = 0.001) and the clinical course was more often complicated by focal neurologic deficits (58 vs. 22%; P < 0.001). Twelve patients of 26 (46%) had parenchymal lesions on neuroimaging, of whom two (8%) were specific for CVT. The transverse sinus was most frequently thrombosed (18 of 26; 69%). Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common causative pathogen, occurring in 17 of 26 patients (65%). Eleven patients (44%) received anticoagulant therapy with heparin and none of them developed intracerebral hemorrhage during admission. Unfavorable outcome, as defined as a score on the Glasgow Outcome Scale <5, occurred in 14 of 26 patients (54%) and 4 patients (15%) died.

CVT is a rare complication of bacterial meningitis and mainly occurs in patients with coma, ear, nose and throat infections, and focal neurologic deficits.