Samia Naz, Asma Mushtaq, Muhammad Zeeshan Khan, Attia Bari, Tahir Masood Ahmad.
Spectrum of acute complications and mortality in bacterial meningitis.
Pak Paed J Jan ;36(3):132-6.

Background: Bacterial meningitis causes wide spectrum of acute complications leading to childhood morbidity and mortality. Objective: This study was conducted to obtain data regarding the frequency of acute complications and mortality related to bacterial meningitis in children. Patients and Methods: This was an observational descriptive study carried out at Medical Department, The Children’s Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore over a period of 6 months. All patients ranging from 1 month to 10 years with probable bacterial meningitis were enrolled in the study. Information was recorded in a pre-designed proforma and data was analyzed by SPSS version 16. Results: A total of sixty patients were enrolled in the study. There were 48(80%) males and 12(20%) females with M: F ratio 4:1. About three-fourth of patients (76.67%) were below 1 year of age (46/60). Complications were seen in 21(35%) patients during hospitalization. Seizures after four days of illness was the most common complication (21.7%) followed by subdural effusion (11.9%), hydrocephalus (10%), cranial nerve palsies (8%), hemiplegia (7%), raised intracranial pressure (3%). Ten patients had more than one complication. There was only one death (1.67%) and one patient left against medical advice. In this study, duration of history of more than 7 days before visiting to hospital was significantly associated with increased frequency of acute complications in meningitis (p=0.002). Conclusion: Seizures, subdural effusion and hydrocephalus are the most common acute complications in patients with meningitis in this study. There is an increased risk of acute complications in patients presenting with long history of symptoms.

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