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[Neonatal bacterial meningitis: prospective study of the long-term outcome of 55 children]
V L Jornada Krebs1, E M De Albuquerque Diniz, F A Costa Vaz
1Instituto da Criança, Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil.
Insights
Bacterial neonatal meningitis frequently causes long-term neurologic issues in infants, including developmental delay and hydrocephalus. Early convulsions and positive CSF cultures predict these serious sequelae.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Neurology
- Infectious Diseases
Abstract:
Fifty-five infants who presented bacterial neonatal meningitis were prospectively studied to analyze the frequency and the type of sequelae. All the infants were full term newborns. There were 38 boys and 17 girls; the age of disease onset varied from 3 to 28 days. The causative organism was represented mainly by enterobacteriae. The median time of follow-up was 5 years. The frequency of neurologic sequelae was 63.7%, represented mainly by neuropsychomotor development delay (58.2%), hydrocephaly (45.5%) and convulsions (34.5%). Severe motor abnormalities ocurred in 23.6% of children (quadriplegia, diplegia, hemiparesia and ataxia). Convulsions in the acute phase of the disease and the positive cerebrospinal fluid culture were highly associated to sequelae. The school performance, obtained in 25 children, showed presence of disabilities in 48% of cases, which were significantly associated to mental retardation.