Seizures complicating infantile and childhood bacterial meningitis.
In this study, 116 patients, at least 1 month of age but younger than 5 years, were identified with culture-proven bacterial meningitis. A comparison was made between the clinical data of the patients with and without seizures during hospitalization. Seizures during acute bacterial meningitis accounted for 47% (55/116) of the episodes. Time interval between the onset of bacterial meningitis and that of seizures was 1 to 20 days (mean, 4 days). Twelve of these 55 patients had one or more afebrile seizures after completing the treatment. At follow-up of at least 1 year after completing treatment, 26 patients had good outcomes, whereas the other 29 patients had poor outcomes. A strong correlation between the findings of abnormalities through neuroimaging and the occurrence of seizures during hospitalization was observed. The long-term outcomes of patients with infantile and childhood bacterial meningitis, who had seizures during the acute phase of bacterial meningitis, were worse than the outcomes of those who did not have such seizures. No child developed late seizures unless there were acute seizures. Factors associated with seizures during acute bacterial meningitis include disturbed consciousness on admission, abnormal neuroimaging findings, and low glucose and high concentration of total proteins in cerebrospinal fluid.
Chang
Chin-Jung
CJ
Department of Pediatrics, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chia-Yi, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Chang
Hsueh-Wen
HW
Chang
Wen-Neng
WN
Huang
Li-Tung
LT
Huang
Song-Chei
SC
Chang
Ying-Chao
YC
Hung
Pi-Lien
PL
Chang
Chen-Sheng
CS
Chuang
Yao-Chung
YC
Huang
Chi-Ren
CR
Tsai
Nai-Wen
NW
Tsui
Huan-Wen
HW
Wang
Kuo-Wei
KW
Lu
Cheng-Hsien
CH
D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012640:Seizures / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric