Clinical Profile and Immediate Outcome of Pyogenic Meningitis in Children

Meningitis literally means inflammation of the meninges. It is mostly caused by bacteria, virus, fungus and protozoa and pyogenic meningitis constitutes a serious neurological disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality in developing countries. This study was carried out to evaluate the clinical presentation and immediate outcome of pyogenic meningitis in children. This was a prospective observational study and conducted at department of Paeditrics in Cumilla Medical College Hospital, Cumilla, Bangladesh from July 2014 to June 2015. Total 50 children were diagnosed as pyogenic meningitis fulfilling the inclusion criteria was included in this study. Cases were enrolled purposively. Immediately after admission through history and clinical examination, complete blood count, random blood sugar, Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination and blood culture was done in all patients. For statistical analysis chi-square test was done and significance of analysis was made when p value <0.05. This study includes patients aged between 2 months to 12 years and male female ratio was 1.5:1. Several risk factors like male sex (60.0%), age below one year (42.0%), Protein energy malnutrition (PEM) (30.0%), not exclusively breastfed (44.0%) were identified. Common presenting complaints were fever (100.0%), convulsion (96.0%), altered consciousness (42.0%) and vomiting (38.0%). Common physical signs were neck rigidity (56.0%), Kernig's sign (26.0%) and bulged fontanelle (34.0%). CSF was hazy in 54.0%, clear in 38.0% and turbid in 08.0% cases, CSF protein was more than 100mg/dl in 90.0% of the cases and glucose was less than 40mg/dl in most of the cases (94.0%). Streptococcus Pneumoniae (49.0%) followed by Neisseria Meningitidis (38.0%) were the two most commonly isolated organism responsible for pyogenic meningitis. Mortality rate during hospital stay was 18.0% and complications developed in 18.0% of cases. To avoid maltreatment in our resource limited setting due to failure of identifying organism, this study might help to administer appropriate antibiotics against organism and to reduce morbidity and mortality in meningitis. This study revealed less mortality rate in our country than neighbors and severe malnutrition important risk factors for the burden of pyogenic meningitis. It requires large scale multicentre studies to establish the whole scenario of Bangladesh.